Malawi’s John Tembo rejects calls to quit after defeat

Malawi’s John Tembo rejects calls to quit after defeat
Written by Chibaula Silwamba
Monday, May 25, 2009 3:40:13 PM

MALAWI'S losing presidential candidate John Tembo has rejected calls from his party top officials that he should resign following his loss. Reacting to last Tuesday's presidential and parliamentary elections in which President Bingu wa Mutharika and his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won with a landslide, Tembo said he had not conceded defeat to the re-elected President.

Tembo said he still had outstanding problems with the electoral process and the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC).

"What I am taking to court are the issues which are causing concern to me and to my followers. We want to get clarity to ensure that elections were free and fair, democratically and so on. I haven't conceded defeat," said 77-year-old Tembo who stood on the ticket of the alliance of his Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and former president Bakili Muluzi's United Democratic Front (UDF).

Asked about calls from MCP spokesperson Ishmael Chafukila and other party top members that he resigns and their acknowledgment of President Wa Mutharika's re-election for a final second term of office, Tembo responded: "Malawi Congress Party has not conceded defeat and Chafukila is not speaking for the party. That is his view, maybe. But it is not the view of the party."

When reminded that his partner Muluzi had also accepted President Wa Mutharika's re-election, attended the President's inauguration ceremony and had issued a statement that he did not want to see violence because of disgruntled poll losers, most likely in reference to him, Tembo said Muluzi was not talking about him.

"No! He was not referring to me. Dr Bakili Muluzi went there as a chairperson of the UDF as well as a former president of the Republic of Malawi," said Tembo in a telephone interview from Lilongwe in Malawi.

Chafukila had earlier stated: "We are now making a call on Hon JZU Tembo to step aside and allow our party to move on."

President Wa Mutharika got 65 per cent of total votes far ahead of Tembo's 31.8 per cent. President Wa Mutharika and his running mate Joyce Banda, who becomes the first-ever female Vice-President of Malawi, were sworn in on Friday in Blantyre.

President Wa Mutharika's governing DPP also attained a two-thirds majority in Parliament, which would give the party an upper hand to pass laws and the budget without difficulties as it had been since 2005 when it was formed after the President and his supporters resigned from UDF which had ushered them into office.