I won the presidency, Mutharika defiantly tells critics, Malawi  opposition

President Peter Mutharika has defiantly told his critics and the opposition that he won the presidency, saying it was childish and foolish for newspapers to advise him shut up on the matter.

Mutharika said this when he addressed his first rally in central region since the May 21 highly contentious and disputed elections.

“Why should I keep quiet when I won the elections? Should I be ashamed that I won the election? That’s childish, that is foolish. I won the presidency and I will say it time and again,” said Mutharika.

Mutharika, who at the beginning of the rally told people to observe a minute silence in honour of a slain police officer at Nsundwe in Lilongwe during violent protests over Mutharika’s decision to hold the rally in Lilongwe, condemned the killing as barbaric.

President Mutharika also described as foolish alleged opposition masterminding of destruction of public infrastructure in some parts of central region in protest against his win.

“We are building the nation; others are destroying it. If you think you are punishing me, you are destroying your own country. This is foolish, stop it,” said Mutharika.

He said the opposition and his critics should accept his presidency and that he was their leader.

He asked both the opposition and civil rights organisations to drop the militancy in dealing with political issues and join him in building the country.

President Mutharika’s public remarks comes after his interview with Aljazeera television beamed on Saturday where he reiterated that he won the elections and  claim that six international organisations declared the elections “free, fair and credible”.

Mutharika, among others, cited the European Union (EU), Commonwealth, African Union (AU), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Southern African Development Community (Sadc) observer missions as among those that declared the polls “free, fair and credible”.

In the interview with Aljazeera, Mutharika further claimed that the international observers went as far as declaring the country’s elections as an example to the rest of Africa.

He said: “It was completely free, fair and credible… the opposition lost the elections and they decided not to accept and are trying to save their face.”

While defending the use of Tippex by justifying that there was nothing wrong under the law to use the correctional fluid where “there were problems of addition and subtraction” Mutharika also blamed MCP for the current political impasse.

During this year’s 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly (Unga74) in New York, Mutharika also stated in his address that the elections were credible and accused the country’s longtime opposition political party of perpetrating post-election violence.

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