{"id":3795,"date":"2011-07-19T21:32:57","date_gmt":"2011-07-19T21:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/?p=3795"},"modified":"2011-07-19T21:32:57","modified_gmt":"2011-07-19T21:32:57","slug":"malawi-vp-dismisses-resignation-demands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/2011\/07\/19\/malawi-vp-dismisses-resignation-demands\/","title":{"rendered":"Malawi VP Dismisses Resignation Demands"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

MMalawi\u2019s vice president, Joyce Band, left AND President Bingu Wa Mutharika, right<\/p><\/div>\n

Malawi\u2019s vice president, Joyce Banda, has rejected demands that she resign from some of her colleagues in the administration as well as senior officials of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is only Malawians who shall remove me from this position,\u201d said Banda. \u201cEven as state vice president of the party (DPP), I didn\u2019t resign; I put up with a lot of torture and abuse because I felt I was obligated to stay, but the party removed me. (Now) I ask the same party to remove me from this job. \u00a0I will not leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Banda has been expelled from the ruling party, but presidential spokesman Heatherwick Ntaba said she should also step down from her post.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is only Malawians who shall remove me from this position,\u201d said Banda. \u201cEven as state vice president of the party (DPP), I didn\u2019t resign; I put up with a lot of torture and abuse because I felt I was obligated to stay, but the party removed me. (Now) I ask the same party to remove me from this job. \u00a0I will not leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cold relations<\/strong><\/p>\n

She said her frosty relations with President Mutharika are\u00a0<\/strong>a result of a \u201csuccession battle\u201d within the ruling party.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe moment I was inaugurated, the president wanted his brother (education minister Peter Mutharika) to run (for president) and take over from him,\u201d said Banda. \u201cWhen they went to (various sections) of the party and asked (them) to endorse (the president\u2019s brother), a candidate (who) had not been elected, (we) questioned the validity and legality of that. The group that refused was called the parallel structure.\u201d<\/p>\n

But presidential spokesman Ntaba denies Mr. Mutharika is imposing his younger brother on the DPP.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are stories from supporters of the vice president herself. But, the president has never, never imposed his brother on anyone,\u201d said Ntaba. There are people coming forward who say they prefer the president\u2019s brother. But, as far as the party is officially concern, the party has not made their choice yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Banda said her convoy was \u201cmysteriously\u201d involved in an accident, shortly after she was expelled from the DPP. She also said security agencies including the police have so far refused to investigate the accident, despite repeated requests.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know who owns the car,\u201d said Ms. Banda. \u201cIt came from the bush and hit the car that I was supposed to be in, (but) fortunately, I had switched cars. Malawians are still waiting for a (police) report.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fallout<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is the second time President Mutharika has broken with his vice president. In 2006, Mr. Mutharika sacked Vice President Cassim Chilumpha after accusing him of attacking the administration and, like Ms. Banda, trying to run a parallel government.<\/p>\n

Chilumpha was later arrested on charges of treason after he was accused of conspiring to assassinate President Mutharika and overthrow his administration.<\/p>\n

Some in the media say the fallout between President Mutharika and Vice President Banda led to her dismissal from the ruling party. Banda has since formed her own political group, the People’s Party (PP), which has yet to be officially registered.<\/p>\n

Protests<\/strong><\/p>\n

Critics of the government say they will embark on a mass protest march today (Wednesday) to express what they said is their anger and disgust at President Mutharika\u2019s \u201cmarauding tyranny, bad economic policies and [poor] democratic governance.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, the government has warned the scheduled protest is illegal. Vice President Banda broke ranks with the administration by supporting the planned demonstration.\u00a0 She says it\u2019s permitted by the constitution as a means of expressing public displeasure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have appealed to the police to protect people on the road and to maintain peace,\u201d said Ms. Banda.\u00a0 \u201cAnd I have appealed to the demonstrators to make sure that they don\u2019t destroy property,\u201d said Ms. Banda.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey must be able to exercise their rights,\u201d she added, \u201c(but) rights go with responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Malawi\u2019s vice president, Joyce Banda, has rejected demands that she resign from some of her colleagues in the administration as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1005],"tags":[466],"class_list":["post-3795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-demonstrations-2","tag-joyce-banda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3795","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=3795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3795\/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=3795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}