Malawi President,Bingu wa Mutharika,Dies After HeartAttack.
Malawi’s President Bingu wa
Mutharika has died after a
heart attack, political and
hospital sources said Friday, but
the government’s official silence
has created political suspense
over his succession.
The impoverished nation was
plunged into a long night of
intrigue after Mutharika’s heart
attack Thursday in the capital
Lilongwe. He was rushed to
hospital, but doctors were
unable to save him, a source at
the hospital said.
“He died… after two hours of
resuscitation,” the source said.
“The president died yesterday,
and his body has been flown to
South Africa for embalming and
for the process to be dignified,
the official announcement will
come later on,” a government
official told AFP, speaking on
condition of anonymity.
An official in Mutharika’s ruling
Democratic Progressive Party
also confirmed the death, and
indicated that an announcement
would come later Friday.
But most Malawians were left in
the dark about his death, with
state radio only reporting that
he had been airlifted to South
Africa, creating a public
impression that he was
undergoing treatment.
Opposition figure Humphrey
Mvula said that the lack of
official communication was
“making it difficult to comment
on the sticky issue of
incapacitation” of the president
and his eventual succession.
Under the constitution, Vice
President Joyce Banda is next
in line. But that succession is
politically fraught because
Mutharika kicked her out of the
ruling party in 2010 as he
chose to groom his brother as
heir apparent instead of her.
Her ouster angered many urban
voters who saw the move as
an attempt by Mutharika to
concentrate his power.
Mutharika, a former World Bank
economist who first came to
power in 2004, was re-elected
with a sweeping majority in
2009 as president of the poor
southern African country.
But he has increasingly come
under fire for attempts to rein
in the media and to shield the
government from public criticism.
His feuds with donors and
lenders like the International
Monetary Fund have hamstrung
the economy in an aid-
dependent nation, which is
suffering from shortages of
foreign currency that have left
Malawi unable to import enough
fuel to meet its needs.
Public frustrations erupted into
nationwide street protests in
July, when police shot 19 people
dead. Last month a broad
coalition of rights groups called
on Mutharika to resign.
Malawi suffered for decades
under the brutal dictatorship of
Kamuzu Banda, and is proud of
its hard-fought democratic
freedoms ushered in with multi-
party elections in 1994.
Any attempt to circumvent the
constitution would certainly
meet with resistance, analysts
said.
“It’s automatic that she takes
over the presidency. The reality
on the ground is that Joyce
Banda takes over until the
remainder of the term in 2014,
unless someone wants to
change the rules,” lawyer
Wapona Kita told AFP.
Kita said the constitution
“clearly states that in the
event of incapacitation or death
of the president, the vice
president takes over.”
Banda formed her own People’s
Party after being sacked from
the ruling party. Mutharika then
filed a case at the High Court
seeking to force her from
office, arguing that his running
mate had become an opposition
figure.
The Nation, an independent
newspaper, criticised the
government’s handling of
Mutharika’s hospitalisation.
“It is time to do things well
through provision of timely
information,” the paper said,
adding that the government
“could have done better than
the sketchy statements
broadcast on state radio — as
almost everyone was left
guessing.”