President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika has rejected the claim by the Vice President Saulos Klaus Chilima that the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) could not have won the 2014 tripartite election without him, saying the clams are false.
Mutharika said this on Thursday evening upon arrival in Mzuzu where is scheduled to fulfill a number of engagement in the North.
“His claims that we approached him four times are nothing but lies. He should be shameful. There was a committee that we had set up to select prospective candidates as running mates. We agreed to pick someone from the private sector.
“His name was on the final list of 15 other candidates for the position. It happened, however, that someone on this committee leaked the list to him. He then came to see me at Area 10 the following morning but I sent him back” said Mutharika.
He added: “He joined us 60 days before elections and he campaigned in Lilongwe and Mchinji where we performed miserably bad. How then did he help us win?”
Chilima is on record to have told people who gathered at Chule Primary School Ground in Dedza last Saturday that DPP should be grateful for the role he played in 2014 elections.
He said that if it were not for him President Mutharika and the DPP would still be in opposition.
Meanwhile Mutharika has warned top UTM leadership that he will have no choice but apply Section 4 of the Constitution, which protects the president, if they continue “castigating” him.
