Mutharika is a technocrat with virtually no political base in Malawi,
having worked for the World and African Development Banks, been
Secretary-General of the Common Market for East and Southern Africa
(COMESA) (until his dismissal for alleged abuse of office) and latterly
Governor of the Reserve Bank of Malawi. Muluzi’s analogy that together
they represented an ideal partnership as an economic ‘engineer’ and a
political fixer was not, therefore, unrealistic. Nonetheless, their different
perspectives conspired to tear them apart from the beginning – even
though Muluzi was key to securing Mutharika’s victory – with a row over
the size of the cabinet, which could not both be ‘lean’, as Mutharika had
declared it would, and accommodate all those to whom Muluzi had made
promises. Increasingly irked by Muluzi’s undisguised back seat driving,
Mutharika resigned from the UDF in February 2005 and formed his own
party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DP), thus formalising the standoff
between the two. The UDF responded by laying impeachment charges
against the president. Predictably, both the charges and Mutharika’s stated
reasons for leaving the party featured allegations of corruption and
cheating, ironically including the rigging of the presidential elections
(which almost certainly occurred, though it was probably not critical in
determining the outcome, and certainly not material in settling any dispute
between Mutharika and the UDF, as both had gained by it).