Banda's father was a Malawian, claims ex-envoy to Botswana

Phiri has lately been spreading the story that president Banda is disqualified to run in this year's presidential election because his father was not Zambian but a Malawian who worked on tobacco farms in Zimbabwe before settling in Zambia where he again worked on a tobacco farm.

Subsequently, he told a media briefing recently that he had written to the Chief Justice, who is the returning officer in the presidential election, to point out that Banda had in fact made a false statutory declaration in his nomination papers for the 2008 presidential by-election (to replace the late Levy Mwanawasa) by indicating that both his parents were Zambians when in fact they were not. In his letter to the Chief Justice of May 19, 2011, Phiri said: