By MEL FRYKBERG
Malawi’s vice president, and the leader of the United Transformation Movement (UTM), Saulos Klaus Chilima has accused self-exiled former Zimbabwe Police Commissioner-General, Augustine Chihuri, of involvement in a plot to rig Malawi’s presidential elections due to take place on Tuesday and has called for his deportation and the postponement of the elections.
“We are saying that Chihuri must leave our country, don’t mess our elections,” Chilima told journalists early Sunday during a press conference.
Later the same day UTM public secretary Joseph Malunga confirmed that a letter had been sent to the MEC demanding the elections be postponed until Chihura had left Malawi.
The plot, according to the UTM chief, involves plans by incumbent President Peter Mutharika to rig the polls so that he can remain in power.
Chilima, who is among eight candidates vying for Malawi’s most coveted job, said Chihuri was hired by Mutharika’s governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) party to train parallel police officers, New Zimbabwe reported.
The police officers, it is alleged, will pose as genuine officers and carry out acts of electoral sabotage so that the elections are tipped in favour of Mutharika’s party.
Chihuri was regarded as one of the pillars of ousted former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe’s dictatorial rule.
He is believed to have collaborated with the brutal excesses carried out by Zanu-PF.
African News Agency (ANA)
