Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika 'dead'

Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika 'dead'

President Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi has died, doctors and cabinet ministers have told the BBC, but this has not been officially announced.

One of the doctors who treated Mr Mutharika, 78, said the president was "clinically dead" on Thursday after suffering a cardiac arrest. State media has only reported that he has been flown to South Africa for medical treatment. If confirmed, his death would spark a constitutional crisis, analysts say. According to the constitution, the vice-president takes over if the head of state is incapacitated or dies in office. But Vice-President Joyce Banda and Mr Mutharika fell out after a row over the succession in 2010, and she was expelled from the ruling Democratic People's Party (DPP). Mr Mutharika's brother, Foreign Minister Peter Mutharika, was chosen instead of Ms Banda to be the DPP's presidential candidate in the 2014 elections.

This will certainly stir things up in Malawi, The president has been with Malawi through thick and thin and unfortunately he seems to have now suffered a Cardiac arrest, Mutharika himself has been the topic of quite a few discussions here on ATS.

this story is running now.

its amazing that the constitution works just fine until someone loses control and then its a crisis.