Africa-Press – Malawi. Police in Lilongwe have stopped anti-government protesters from going to State House where the protesters wanted to deliver a petition demanding the resignation of President Lazarus Chakwera.
The protesters in Lilongwe today are being led by activist Joshua Chisa Mbele who also led similar protests in Blantyre yesterday. The anti-government protesters wanted to go to the president’s official residence to present a petition demanding Chakwera to resign because he has failed to deliver on his promises.
“Since we are the ones who chose the president, we are also telling him that the we no longer want him as president,” said Mbele in his address to the protesters.
Among other issues, Mbele, who organised the protests under Coalition Against Impunity, says there is corruption and impunity under Chakwera and Malawians are suffering due to the continued rise in cost of living.
From Lilongwe Community Ground, protesters started marching towards Kamuzu Palace where they planned to deliver a petition and hold a vigil in order to wait for Chakwera to return from the Northern Region.
However, police and Malawi Defence Force soldiers were deployed at Kamuzu Central Roundabout in Lilongwe to stop the protesters from proceeding to Kamuzu Palace.
The protesters were forced to make a turn and they took the Paul Kagame Highway heading to Lilongwe District Commissioners’ office to deliver their petition.
The plan to deliver the petition to State House was announced last week but authorities had been advising the organisers to deliver their petition to the District Commissioner. Yesterday, President Chakwera left Lilongwe for Mzuzu in the Northern Region and this morning he was in Nkhata Bay inspecting a water project there.
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