THE PHILIPPINES
President Rodrigo Duterte chose not to stay in Manila’s Malacañang Palace because it is supposedly haunted, opting instead for a house across the river called Bahay Pagbabago.
URUGUAY
Former President José Mujica refused to move into the lavish presidential mansion in 2010. The onetime leftist guerrilla lived at his wife’s farmhouse during his five-year term.
MALAWI
Former President Bakili Muluzi, who came into power in 1994, refused to stay in the “obscene opulence”of the $100 million official residence, built by former autocrat Hastings Banda.
This appears in the March 27, 2017 issue of TIME.
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