Battle lines seem drawn for the presidency of Malawi after vice president Joyce Banda said she would announce her presidential ambitions when time is ripe, two days after declaring that it is Malawians who will choose who they
want.

On Friday, Malawi’s oldest newspaper *The Daily Times* carried an article stating the party which Joyce Banda serves as first vice president, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), had nominated president Bingu wa Mutharika’s brother, Peter, as its presidential candidate for the 2014 general elections.

On Saturday, Banda – Malawi’s first female vice president – told *Weekend Nation* that Malawians were in a better place to debate whether the country was ready for a female president or not – referring to remarks by the party’s southern region governor Noel Masangwi stressing that the country wasn’t.

And on Monday, Banda moved to declare that she would announce her presidential ambitions when time is ripe, clearly laughing off a pro-Mutharika campaign which has grossly demeaned the vice president.

“The route to state house is not Joyce Banda,” she is quoted by *The Nation*as saying.

“What MBC and others are doing has shown a clear indication of desperation and panic on their part.”

MBC Director Bright Malopa launched a scathing attack on the vice president last week saying she was not capable of leading the country. Instead, he said Mutharika’s brother and current Minister of Justice Constitutional Affairs Peter is.

Banda fired back at the pro-Mutharika campaign saying they needed to concentrate on selling their products rather than demeaning a competitor.

“When marketing a product, you concentrate on selling your product,” she is further quoted as saying. “You do not go and look to other people.

“I didn’t even watch that but those who listened to it and told me made me laugh. I laughed it off because of one reason: I just felt that this statement was mere propaganda,” she said in references to a programme in which Malopa demeaned her.

Banda played a crucial role in marketing president Mutharika during the run up to the 19th May 2009 general elections but soon fell out as Mutharika made all indications that he wanted his brother to take over the presidency when he retires.

A tough campaign lies ahead as most DPP parliamentarians are against decisions the president make but they apparently fail to tell him to avoid embarrassing him.

Among others, Mutharika has assented to a bill changing the national flag and his government has brought in other policies that have made him unpopular.

Sanje Msiska