New President Takes Oath of Office in Malawi
Bakili Muluzi was sworn in as Malawi’s new president Saturday, ending more than 30 years of H. Kamuzu Banda’s autocratic one-party rule.
Muluzi, 51, was elected in the country’s first multi-party election last Tuesday, but his United Democratic Front still lacks an absolute majority in the country’s 177-seat Parliament.
The new president was inaugurated before a crowd of 70,000.
One of his first acts was to order freedom for political prisoners and to close down at least three prisons he said were notorious for having been used by Banda’s government to detain and torture opposition figures.
The ailing Banda, believed to be in his mid-90s, had ruled the impoverished southeast African nation since independence from Britain in 1964.
His grip on power started to slip two years ago with mounting domestic and international demands for political reform.
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