Malawi columnist hits at Uladi Mussa on Atupele’s 2014 elections candidature

One of Malawi’s leading newspaper columnists George Kasakula, who runs his column

Writing in this week’s entry, Kasakula said Mussa, who is also Malawi’s Minister of Home Affairs and Internal Security, is goofing by telling Malawians that the young Muluzi can’t become president because of his young age when the Constitution is clear on it.

“Are they saying they are above the Constitution by the mere fact that they are in the ruling PP, a party that Malawians have not even endorsed in any election, but found itself in power as a beneficiary of death?” wondered Kasakula.

He said while PP is busy trying to decampaign Muluzi, little does it know that the latter is gaining ground for “conceiving ideas and secondly, crystallising them into concrete policy proposals for presentation to Malawians.”

“If I were a PP strategist, I would not waste my breath attacking Atupele’s age but would want to see any sign of immaturity in the proposals, if any. In plain simple straight-forward language, what is the response of PP, for example, to free secondary education? Are they for it or against it and why? Why not ask Atupele to cost it and ask whether Malawi can afford it or where he thinks he would get the money from?” he wrote.

Muluzi, son to former Malawi Head of State Bakili Muluzi was elected at his party’s convention late last year as UDF torchbearer for the 2014 tripartite elections. Muluzi, 34, will be 35 next year, the age the Malawi Constitution has in place for anybody vying for the country’s top job.