![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/a-banda.jpg\" "\\"a-banda\\"")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Malawi President Bingu wa
\nMutharika told his party\u2019s
\nNationals Governing Council
\nmeeting on Sunday that he
\nhas banned protests planned
\nfor Wednesday 20 July, 2011 and hinted that he will be
\narresting Vice President Joyce
\nBanda.<\/p>\n
In a meeting held at New
\nState House in Lilongwe it was
\nproposed that the Vice
\nPresident should be nicked
\nbecause she is attacking
\ngovernment on various social and political issues, yet she is second \u2013in-chain of command.<\/p>\n
Well-placed sources who
\nattended the meeting told
\nNyasa Times that Mutharika
\ncommented for the proposal
\nby saying: \u201cI am already
\nworking on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
This follow an earlier
\nrevelations by Nyasa Times
\nthat Mutharika was preparing
\nto arrest the Vice President
\nafter her statement which she
\ncalled on the Malawi Government to allow people
\nto exercise their right to
\ndemonstrate freely and
\nwithout fear of intimidation.<\/p>\n
When contacted for comment,
\nBanda \u2013 an enormous political
\nforce -told Nyasa Times: \u201cI do
\nnot have much to say.\u201d<\/p>\n
The country\u2019s Second Citizen
\nmaintained that she hears the
\nvoices of the people and relate
\nto the issues being raised.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the President said
\nhe would not allow
\nnationwide demonstrations
\nagainst economic problems in
\nMalawi on Wednesday,
\nwarning the public not to be in the streets.<\/p>\n
He said the country should
\ninstead listen to his public
\nlecture at New State House in
\nwhich he will highlight,
\namong other issues, political
\nindependence, national sovereignty and self reliance.<\/p>\n
Mutharika directed that
\nprotests should take place on
\nThursday and they should be
\npartial, not national wide.<\/p>\n
Government spokesman
\nVuwa Kaunda confirmed that
\nthe Wednesday
\ndemonstration has been
\nrendered \u201cillegal\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do not therefore expect
\nany individual to participate in
\nany such demonstration on
\nJuly 20,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cGovernment accordingly
\nstrongly warns those
\norganising and intending to
\nparticipate in the
\ndemonstrations to refrain
\nfrom doing so and they should listen to the President\u2019s
\nlecture,\u201d Vuwa added.<\/p>\n
Organisers have however said
\nthey will go ahead with the
\ndemonstrations which have
\nbeen widely backed by
\nstakeholders, opposition
\nparties, labour union, churches and NGOs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot accept a
\ndeclaration of a police state,\u201d
\nsaid one citizen in Lilongwe.<\/p>\n
Fuelling the anger among
\nMalawians is the shortages of
\nhospital drugs, fuel and forex
\nas well as governance issues.<\/p>\n
Observers say the ban on
\ndemonstrations indicates that
\nMutharika is fearful he will
\nface unrest which could force
\nhim out of power.\u2014
\n(@ Nyasa Times)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika told his party\u2019s Nationals Governing Council meeting on Sunday that he has banned protests planned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[865,735],"class_list":["post-3718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news","tag-demonstration","tag-special-dates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}