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(NYASATIMES) Bingu flies to Zambia, downplays Sata victory

Bingu flies to Zambia, downplays Sata victory
By Lusubilo Sichali, Nyasa Times
September 23, 2011

At exactly 8:50 am local time, the military plane carrying Malawi’s president Bingu wa Mutharika took off at Chileka Airport for Lusaka, Zambia to attend the inauguration of Patriotic Front (PF) leader Michael Chilufya Sata as new president of Zambia.

Sata was declared winner of the presidential election held on Tuesday. Sata, popularly known as ‘King Cobra’, beat incumbent Rupiah Bwezani Banda of Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD).

He received 1,150,045 votes compared to the former’s 961,796 with 95.3 percent of constituencies counted.

Asked by reporters how he viewed the elections in Zambia, Mutharika surprising feigned ignorance of the way things had gone in Zambia.

Mutharika (R) and his ally Rupiah Banda, now former president of Zambia

He only indicated that Zambians had voted for a president and he was attending his inauguration. Mutharika kept close links with the defeated Banda.

“As you know, Zambians and Malawians are brothers and sisters and as such while the Zambians celebrate the election of a new president, we have to celebrate with them,” said Mutharika, without making any reference to Sata, the winner.

On March 15, 2007, the Mutharika government deported Sata from Malawi shortly after arrival; a development Sata believed was politically-inclined.

President-elect Sata had claimed then that he had travelled to Malawi to meet with the business community, and alleged that the Zambian government had effected the deportation by falsely claiming that he was in Malawi to assist that country’s former president, Bakili Muluzi. The Zambian government denied this while the Malawian government gave no explanation for Sata’s deportation.

Sata’s lawyer, Ralph Kasambara said that he had initiated a lawsuit against the Malawian government for violating his rights.

The new Zambian president had served under the late president Frederick Chiluba as minister during the 1990s as part of MMD government.

He went into opposition in 2001, forming the PF. As an opposition leader, Sata emerged as the leading opposition presidential contender and rival to the late president Levy Mwanawasa in the 2006 presidential election, but was defeated. Following Mwanawasa’s death, Sata ran again and lost in 2008 presidential by-election.

After 10 years in opposition, Sata has finally defeated Banda, the incumbent, to win with a plurality of the vote.

Labels: 2011 ELECTIONS, BINGU WA MUTHARIKA, MICHAEL SATA

posted by MrK @ 3:58 PM