MULUZI CONFIRMS 5/20 ELECTIONS, 5/24 INAUGURATION

C O N F I D E N T I A L LILONGWE 000410 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/17/2009 TAGS: PGOV KDEM ETRD MZ MI SUBJECT: MULUZI CONFIRMS 5/20 ELECTIONS, 5/24 INAUGURATION REF: LILONGWE 405 Classified By: CDA TDougherty for reasons 1.5 b/d. ¶1. (C) President Muluzi telephoned Ambassador Browning May 15 on the eve of his departure from post. In the five-minute call, Muluzi wished the Ambassador well on his sudden assignment to Baghdad, about which he said the Minister of Foreign Affairs had briefed him. The Ambassador in turn wished Muluzi well in his post-presidential endeavors. He congratulated him for steering Malawi over the past decade from a dictatorship to an active democracy with multiparty elections and a vibrant press (to which Muluzi joked: "Yes, sometimes maybe too vibrant!"). ¶2. (C) Muluzi confirmed that presidential and parliamentary elections, which had been postponed from their original May 18 date by a court order (reftel),will now take place on May ¶20. When the Ambassador commented that many people had speculated the new date would be May 25, Muluzi replied that elections needed to take place on May 20 since he had already invited other heads of state to an inauguration ceremony in Blantyre on May 24. ¶3. (C) The Ambassador raised the urgency of Malawi signing the (long-delayed) Direct Agreement necessary for a $30 million USD OPIC loan for rehabilitation of the Nacala Corridor. Muluzi said he expected the Agreement would be signed on May 17. (Post will report on Nacala septel.) ¶4. (C) Comment: Though primarily a courtesy, Muluzi's call came amid the frantic end-game of an elections campaign, showing how strongly he values Malawi's relationship with the U.S. DOUGHERTY