National News

UTM’s Chilima deplores politics of intimidation

UTM president Saulos Chilima has said politics of intimidation to coerce people has no place in a multiparty dispensation.

Speaking on Friday in Balaka when he addressed a political rally at Balaka Primary School, Chilima said politics of intimidation in Malawi ended after the 1993 referendum.

“The ruling party leadership should stop intimidating people. The leadership said recently that the foolishness of trying to rig the elections should stop but I say the foolishness that must stop is the foolishness of intimidating people into coercion,” he said.

He said UTM wholly agrees with the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) assertion that nobody will rig the May 21 Tripartite Elections and asked DPP to stop fantasising with the idea that the elections will be rigged.

Chilima said Malawi is reeling from bad governance and economic mismanagement and that is why UTM is going around selling its manifesto of hope, respect for the rule of law, financial prudence and denouncing nepotism, cronyism and tribalism.

“Almost three years ago in Balaka and some areas modern ginneries were built with huge loans that will be serviced by future generations but today all the ginneries are full of cobwebs because we are failing to diversify the economic base by adding value to already existing crops,” he said.

Earlier on, UTM national campaign director Lucius Banda said every Malawian is fed up with the gross maladministration in government.

“Balaka is considered the home of multiparty democracy because the [Catholic] bishops’ letter [March 8 Pastoral Letter], which was the genesis of the 2003 referendum, was printed here,” he said.

Related Articles

Back to top button