{"id":7875,"date":"2012-03-17T12:42:40","date_gmt":"2012-03-17T12:42:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/?p=7875"},"modified":"2012-03-17T12:42:40","modified_gmt":"2012-03-17T12:42:40","slug":"malawi-ups-security-after-mutharika-resignation-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/2012\/03\/17\/malawi-ups-security-after-mutharika-resignation-call\/","title":{"rendered":"Malawi ups security after Mutharika resignation call"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Malawi’s police stepped up street patrols on Friday after a leading rights group called for the resignation of President Bingu wa Mutharika whose government has vowed to act against “anarchy”.<\/p>\n

“We have intensified police visibility and patrols,” police national spokesman Davie Chingwalu told AFP, who said police were on alert for protests.<\/p>\n

The Public Affairs Committee, a group of religious leaders and activists, has threatened “civil disobedience” if Mutharika did not step down within 60 days or call for a referendum on his leadership within three months.<\/p>\n

But Information Minister Patricia Kaliati warned that the government will not “stay idle while people drag this country into chaos and anarchy”.<\/p>\n

“We have an elected government in this country. Inciting people to rise against government is against principles of democracy,” she reacted at a press conference late Thursday in Lilongwe.<\/p>\n

The group issued the ultimatum after sidestepping a government ban by holding the two-day meeting at a Catholic church outside Blantyre where police searched delegates, including bishops and opposition leaders, as they entered.<\/p>\n

“In the event that these demands are not met, we will call on Malawians from all walks of life to go for civil disobedience,” said the PAC in a resolution at the end of the meeting.<\/p>\n

Mutharika’s second term in office has seen growing discontent with his rule. Political tensions erupted into rioting in July, when police shot 19 people dead.<\/p>\n

Several major donors cut their aid last year over concerns about the infringement of democratic freedoms, economic management and governance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Malawi’s police stepped up street patrols on Friday after a leading rights group called for the resignation of President Bingu […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[300,268,1823,340,258,197,1839,1791],"class_list":["post-7875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-malawi-news","tag-bingu-wa-mutharika","tag-bingu-wa-mutharika-fertiliser-subsidy-industry-green-revolution","tag-chingwalu","tag-lilongwe","tag-malawi","tag-police","tag-resignation","tag-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7875","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=7875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7875\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}