LILONGWE (Reuters) - Malawi
President Bingu wa Mutharika has
died early Friday [Apr. 6] after a heart attack, medical and government sources said.
The 78-year-old was rushed to a
Lilongwe hospital on Thursday after collapsing but was dead on arrival, the
sources said.
The constitution makes clear that
Vice-President Joyce Banda is first
in line to take over as head of state in the impoverished southern African
nation, although Banda's expulsion
from the ruling party in 2010 may complicate the transition.
Mutharika, a former
World Bank economist who had been accused of despotism and mishandling the
economy in his final months, appeared to have been grooming his Foreign
Minister brother Peter as his
successor.
Peter
Mutharika
had tended to deputize in his brother's absence.
Police deployed in force across the
capital on Thursday after Mutharika's
admission to hospital, while 15 army officers took up position around Banda's residence, witnesses said.
Before his death, Mutharika's condition drew little
sympathy on the streets of Blantyre, the commercial capital, where many people
viewed him as an autocrat responsible for chronic shortages of fuel, food and
foreign exchange.
"Perhaps the end of our
suffering is also nigh", said Benson
Msiska, a taxi driver stuck in a long queue for petrol in the southern
city.
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