‘Regime change proponents did not violate the law’

Chancellor College constitutional lawyer Edge Kanyongolo has said people who on Wednesday called for a regime change in the country merely exercised their freedom of expression and did not violate the law.

The remarks follow a proposal some delegates to the just-ended two-day Public Affairs Committee (PAC) Sixth All-Inclusive Stakeholders Conference in Blantyre made to ask President Peter Mutharika to resign.

Speaking in an interview yesterday, Kanyongolo said there is nothing illegal with people calling on the President to resign, but it would not be proper for the people to do so in unlawful means.

“In my view, to express an opinion that the President should resign is a legitimate exercise of the Constitution. In this country, we have freedom of expression, so, I actually don’t see anything wrong with calling for the President to resign,” he said.

Kanyongolo also said what should follow is for the President to decide whether to heed the call.

Commenting on the issue, Institute for Policy Interaction (IPI) executive director Rafiq Hajat said it is unrealistic that people should expect a President to resign when something is not going right in the country.

Hajat said: “However, considering that we have 80 percent of people living in rural areas and they don’t really care either way as long as they have chimanga [maize], you will find that calls for the President to resign will only be popular among the urban elite, which can lead to failure.”

Last year during the Fifth PAC All-Inclusive Stakeholder Conference, Rumphi East parliamentarian and People’s Party (PP) third vice-president Kamlepo Kalua also called on the President to resign. n