Malawian President Bingu Wa Mutharika on Saturday accepted his Democratic Progressive Party ( DPP) unanimous nomination as its presidential candidate in the May polls with a declaration of landslide victory.
"We have the confidence and support of all people in Malawi.. therefore victory is ours," said Mutharika in his acceptance address to the DPP national convention held in the country's commercial hub Blantyre, Xinhua reported.
The president described his four-year-old political party as the only one in the country that could be trusted by Malawians to form a trustworthy government which has been evidenced by its performance in the past five years.
Mutharika, who won the presidency in May 2004 on the former ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) ticket, set up his DPP in February 2005. The president's five years in the country's highest office have been characterized with significant improvement of the economy and disciplined government expenditure.
Mutharika told delegates to the party's convention that Malawi was now emerging as a stronger and better nation based on the sound economic footing that his government had placed the country on since 2004.
He therefore appealed to all Malawians to give his party another five-year mandate in the forthcoming May Presidential and Parliamentary Elections, adding: "The DPP will give you a better Malawi."
The DPP has become Malawi's third party to elect its presidential candidate after the Malawi Congress Party elected John Tembo and the UDF nominated the country's former president Bakili Muluzi.
Unlike Mutharika and Tembo, Muluzi's candidacy is not yet certain due to recent arguments that he was not qualified to stand as president as he had already served in that capacity for 10 years, which is the maximum time the country's constitution accords somebody to serve as the country's president.
Muluzi, however, argued that the constitution is silent on whether a person who has served two five-year terms as president could bounce back after a break.
