Blantyre, Malawi — All Christian churches in Malawi, have agreed to meet Friday in the capital, Lilongwe, to express opposition to moves by the ruling United Democratic Front to amend the Constitution and allow President Bakili Muluzi to run for a third term, a cleric said Monday in Blantyre.

Rev. Daniel Gunya, general secretary of the Blantyre Synod of the CCAP, told PANA that the meeting would allow Christians in Malawi to show support for the pastoral letters the Catholic bishops and the Church of Central African Presbyterian recently published in Blantyre.

Both letters urged Muluzi to abandon contemplating to run for a third mandate against the Constitution.

"As church leaders we think it's high time we meet and discuss the two pastoral letters," he said.

There has been mixed reaction from government on the hard-hitting CCAP pastoral letter.

While Justice minister and attorney general Peter Fachi criticised the clergy, branding them as acting for opposition politicians, Muluzi has asked for dialogue with the church leaders.

Avoiding to touch on the sensitive third term issue, Muluzi called for restraint among his angry members clamouring for his third mandate.

"We are all not perfect," he told the congregation of at a Roman Catholic Church service in the southern town of Balaka Sunday.

"We should accept criticisms and avoid being confrontational."

And in a 10-page official response to the church leaders' letter advertised in the local press Monday, government says the political politburo of the ruling United Democratic Front has never discussed the third term issue.

"Simply put, no official decision to amend the Constitution for this purpose has been made," it reads.

But Gunya of the CCAP said that is not good enough. He said there was no need to make a decision on this issue because the Constitution is clear that a president should only stand for two terms.

"I would urge the President to comment and act on this issue now. We feel there is no need to call for a referendum for this," he said.

Meanwhile, the political fall-out following the publication of the CCAP pastoral letter continues to be felt.

Gunya claimed that CCAP Christians in the southern district of Phalombe, one of the 13 districts devastated by the recent floods, are being denied relief items because of the pastoral letter.

"Other clergymen and Christians, including myself, have been threatened with violence through anonymous letters and phone calls," he said, adding that yet other influential pastors and church leaders have been approached and enticed with money to discredit the pastoral letter as the work of politicians.

In a related development, presidential affairs minister Dumbo Lemani, who is also director general of the ruling UDF party, told PANA: "President Muluzi has told us not to take a confrontation stance against the church leaders."

Lemani, who was the first to openly call on Muluzi to run, said if the majority of Malawians say they want Muluzi as candidate, party leaders would have no power to stop them.

"Who are we to stop the will of the people? That will be acting very undemocratic. In a democracy, the majority rules," he said.

Christians represent over 80 percent of the population.