WINDHOEK – President Hifikepunye Pohamba has congratulated Malawi’s Peter Mutharika on his election as president of that country.
The Namibian Head of State says he looks forward to working with the new president to strengthen bilateral cooperation between the two countries. President Pohamba joins other heads of states that have already congratulated Mutharika. “On behalf of the Government and the people of the Republic of Namibia, and indeed on my own behalf, I wish to extend warm congratulations to Your Excellency on your election as the President of the Republic of Malawi during the Tripartite Eelections held in your country on 20 May 2014,” the president wrote.
Pohamba said this in a press statement released on Wednesday in which he also said he looks forward to working closely with Mutharika in his [Pohamba] capacity as the chairperson of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation. Malawi is currently the chair of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
“We commend the Malawi Electoral Commission, the people and political leaders of Malawi for having delivered, free and fair, transparent elections reflecting the will of the people of Malawi,” the president said.
“[It]… is our common commitment to preserve and protect the fundamental human rights of our peoples, promote democracy and relentlessly advance regional economic integration and our development agenda.”
During the May 20 polls, Mutharika beat former president, Joyce Banda, after he garnered 36 percent of the votes compared to her 20 percent.
After the election results were announced, Banda tried to the annul outcome by calling for a re-election after claiming that the elections were fraudulent. Banda is the first serving Malawian president to lose an election.
Meanwhile, BBC Africa on Monday reported that Mutharika said he is offering an ‘olive branch’ to Banda, while addressing thousands of supporters at a ceremony held to celebrate his inauguration as president.
“I look forward to shaking hands with her to bury the past. I come to her with an olive branch.
Don’t let it drop,” Mutharika was quoted saying. Mutharika is Malawi’s former foreign minister and brother of Bingu wa Mutharika, the late president who unexpectedly died in office in 2012.
By Staff Writer