By Investigative reporter: Witness Makolija
Deep cracks have opened in DPP over President Mutharika selection of Atupele Muluzi as his running mate . While Atupele is enjoying the privileges of a Vice president and seeing the revival of his father’s party UDF, DPP is quickly falling apart and its visibility beginning to fade. According to inside information obtained by a team of our investigative reporters, big guns in the party Ben Malunga Phiri and Kondwani Nankhumwa have vowed not to do any campaigning for Atupele Muluzi
Nankhumwa has been positioning himself to be the future leader of DPP and it was his thought that President Mutharika will put up a succession plan that sees him become a running mate in order to take over the presidency . Ben Phiri on the other hand, had realised that he was unpopular and unqualified and had quickly teamed up with Nankhumwa to push for Nankhumwa selection.
The choice of Atupele Muluzi has split the party in two. According to one of our sources most hardcore DPP supporters are seeing their party die before there eyes. “ We have President Mutharika who is old and cannot go round the country to campaign, We have our DPP leaders who don’t want to go out and campaign for Atupele and now all we see is yellow yellow yellow which is the first sign that DPP is dying a slow and painful death” said the source who opted for anonymity.
Atupele was given the running mate position after first lady Gertrude Mutharika reached a deal with former president Bakili Muluzi. In the deal , When Muluzi will take over from President Mutharika who is old and frail and will not finish the next term if elected , then young Atupele will protect Gertrude Mutharika and Norman Chisale from having their ill-gotten worth investigated. This leaves the other DPP gurus at risk of being booted out from the government.
According to the report Nankhumwa and Ben Phiri are angry with Gertrude Mutharika and Norman Chisale for being blind in seeing that this has been the plot by Bakili Muluzi to get back in power and take back DPP which was an outbreak of his UDF. “Everyone in DPP knows that Muluzi has come back to take over his party and majority of us will pay the prize for this. The first lady and Norman Chisale are too blind to see and they have been hoodwinked by Bakili Muluzi”
President Mutharika is said to be too frail to follow what is happening. For several years now, those around him are the ones who have been making decisions for him.
