Out-going Malawian President Bakili Muluzi has warned that he will not hesitate to expel international election observers from Malawi if they do not stop campaigning against his ruling United Democratic Front (UDF).

An audibly angry Muluzi, launching his party's election campaign in the northern city of Mzuzu, said Monday he has information that some international observers are going about undermining his government rather than just merely observing the polls.

Muluzi said he has heard that some international observers are going about asking voters why they should vote the ruling UDF party back to power when the economy is in shambles.

"What have you got to do that? If you are here (to decampaign my government) I will ask you to leave Malawi immediately," he said. "Is your job to come here and decampaign my government? I will ask you to leave Malawi immediately."

The angry president said the international observers' job was to "observe the elections, not to conduct them." He said they should leave the role of conducting the polls to the independent Malawi Electoral Commission.

He said his intelligence network has already tabulated who is campaigning against his government and where.

"Observers who enter Malawi must know I have names already ... if you are found doing something else apart from observing the elections I will politely ask you to leave the country. And I am not playing," he said.

Muluzi said Malawi "is a sovereign country and I am the head of state and government."

"Just because you come from somewhere you can't dictate Bakili Muluzi what to do," he said.

Although the president did not name names it is only the European Union Election Observation Mission that has deployed observers throughout the country. Other election observation teams from the Commonwealth secretariat in London and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) came to the country last week to do the ground work but are yet to deploy observers.

European Union Election Observation Mission media expert Javier Gutierrez said Monday his mission was investigating the president's remarks but can only issue a substantive statement later.

Source: Xinhua