MUTHARIKA DENIES PROPOSING FOR FEDERALISM

President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika has distanced himself from media reports that he proposed for federalism in the country.

According to a story carried by Nation Newspaper of October 31 titled ‘APM proposed federalism in 2006’, it is alleged that President Mutharika when addressing the National Constitutional Review Conference in Lilongwe, held from 28 to 31 March 2006 titled ‘Towards a More Manageable Constitution, Mutharika, then professor at Washington University School of Law in USA, publicly proposed federalism while addressing the issue of national unity.

But reacting to the issue at Sanjika Palace on Tuesday when he hosted Journalists, Mutharika vehemently denied proposing the idea.

“To be honest with you I have never supported federalism in the country. I came here as a consultant on the constitution asked to comment on a number of proposals such as revolving the Presidency [among the three regions], federalism and proportional of representation. I talked about all of the [three proposals] and how they could be applied to the context of Malawi.

“What I said in the case of Malawi was that one way would be to abolish the regional boundaries. For the three regions are not geographically equal in size. In fact the regions have no legal meaning as they are not mentioned in the constitution”, said Mutharika.

Mutharika said at the moment his government will allow citizen in the country to decide whether to adopt the system or not and he will not allow other people to mislead Malawians on the issue.

The proposal for federalism started by former ruling People’s Party (PP) Provincial Chairman for the North Christopher Mzomera Ngwira.

Ngwira argues that the idea will help all regions of Malawi to have equal representation in the government.