Former President Mutharika wins Malawi election to oust longtime rival Chakwera

Former President Peter Mutharika has been declared the winner of Malawi’s election, ousting incumbent Lazarus Chakera to return as chief of considered one of Africa’s poorest international locations.

Mr. Chakwera conceded defeat in a speech on nationwide tv hours earlier than the ultimate outcomes have been introduced on Wednesday. Supporters of Mutharika and his Democratic Progressive Party had already gathered within the streets of the business capital, Blantyre, to have a good time.

The 85-year-old Mr. Mutharika, who was President from 2014-2020, received 56% of the vote, in keeping with the Malawi Electoral Commission. Mr. Chakwera was second with 33 per cent.

The profitable candidate wanted to obtain greater than 50 per cent of the vote to keep away from a runoff.

“This outcome is a reflection of your collective will to have a change of government, and so it is only right that I concede defeat out of respect for your will as citizens and out of respect for the constitution,” Mr. Chakwera stated in his earlier tackle to Malawians conceding defeat.

Mr. Mutharika’s return to the Presidency got here after he misplaced to Chakwera in a historic election rerun 5 years in the past. As President, he was initially declared the winner of a 2019 vote, however that election was nullified months later by a court docket and ordered to be redone due to irregularities.

Mr. Chakwera received the redo in 2020, and Mutharika turned the primary chief in Africa to be faraway from workplace in an election rerun.

Mr. Chakwera’s 2020 election was additionally greeted on the time by road celebrations. But the 70-year-old former evangelical preacher misplaced reputation in his first time period, largely on account of an ongoing financial disaster in a rustic of 21 million in southern Africa already struggling as one of many least developed on this planet.

The economic system was seen as the principle situation for voters, who had grown weary of the hovering cost-of-living and gas and meals shortages.

Inflation has shot as much as over 27 per cent, whereas a devastating cyclone in 2023 and a drought final 12 months worsened hardship. More than 80 per cent of the inhabitants in Malawi reside rurally and depend on agriculture.

Mr. Mutharika, a former regulation professor, had campaigned on guarantees of fixing the economic system and restoring what his occasion framed as his skilled management, although his first time period was marked by allegations of corruption and public discontent over meals shortages and electrical energy outages.

He has an extended historical past in Malawian politics, having served within the Cabinet when his older brother was President. Mr. Mutharika’s brother, Bingu wa Mutharika, was president from 2004 till his demise in workplace in 2012.

A complete of 17 candidates ran in final Tuesday’s election, together with one other former President, Joyce Banda. But analysts all the time noticed it as a race between Chakwera and his predecessor Mutharika, who’ve met in elections in 2014, 2019, 2020 and this 12 months.

Mr. Chakwera stated that he had spoken with Mr. Mutharika to congratulate him. He added that his Malawi Congress Party would settle for the result of the vote regardless of complaints in latest days from a number of events, together with MCP, of irregularities in some voting districts.

The head of the Malawi Electoral Commission that oversaw the election stated that it had resolved all these complaints and did not report any main issues.

Malawians additionally voted for the make-up of Parliament and greater than 500 native authorities representatives.

Malawi gained worldwide consideration final 12 months when a navy aircraft crash killed 51-year-old Vice-President Saulos Chilima, who was common with younger Malawians and seen as a frontrunner in ready.

A former British protectorate that received independence in 1964, the nation was dominated for 30 years by the autocratic Hastings Banda till 1994. It has developed a peaceable multiparty democracy during the last 20 years.