APM says Chilima contributed to downfall of the party

Former Malawi President Arthur Peter Mutharika, and also the Democratic Progressive Party leader has told the party members to stop blaming him for losing the 2020 elections.

Making his speech at the Fundraising Dinner and Dance in Blantyre on Saturday evening where he was the Guest of Honour, Mutharika said they lost elections in 2020 because of Dr Saulos Klaus Chilima’s United Transformation Movement [UTM] which scooped 20%.

“We lost the elections because Chilima got 20%. That 20% was actually Democratic Progressive Party’s votes,” said Mutharika. “So combine, Chakwera got 35%, I got 40%, Chilima 20%. So his 20% and Chakwera’s 35%, gave them 55%. Thats what happened.”

APM angrily said those who heap blame on him for the party to lose the 2020 elections are stupid and they don’t what they are doing.

“They don’t even know what I went through myself. In 2014, tear gases, beaten up, five assassination attempts in my life, you have know idea [on] what you are talking about. Especially, these young people, so stop that kind of things, blaming me. We didn’t lose elections because of me,” he said.

APM has since urged the party members to stop blaming others, instead, rebuild the party to make sure that it wins the next elections.

Malawi’s opposition leader Lazarus and Dr Saulos Klaus Chilima Chakwera won the country’s rerun presidential vote in 2020 after getting 58.57% of the vote.

A rerun of the 2019 election was ordered after the Constitutional Court found the original ballot had been marred by widespread irregularities.

That election saw President Mutharika narrowly re-elected by fewer than 159,000 votes.

Mr Chakwera, who came second in that election, argued that tallying forms had been added up incorrectly and tampered with.

Uncertainty around the result sparked months of tension, which spilled over into clashes between opposition supporters and police.

February’s annulment led some to celebrate, but Mr Mutharika described it as a “serious subversion of justice” which marked the death of the country’s democracy.

There were concerns over the logistics and safety of carrying out an election in the midst of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic.

“Observants from the European Union, United Nations, African Union, SADC, COMMESA, etc they all said the elections was called free, fair, transparent and credible. However, inspite of that, its one of the great mysteries in the history of jurisdiction. I know the laws very very well as anybody in the World.

“It’s really strange that inspite of this, the elections was nullified, the only incident that I know in the history of the World where even the court itself admitted that the elections was fair, and that the manner irregularities, and those manner irregularities happens in every elections and it does not affect the outcome of the elections,” he commented on the nullified 2019 elections.