Comeback kid: Peter Mutharika is back in the presidential seat, taking 56.8% of the vote. Photo: File
Peter Mutharika’s comeback victory makes him the oldest serving president in Southern Africa. At 85, he is four years older than Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni, and if he serves a full term, he will leave office at 90.
Seven hours before the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) announced the results of the 16 September tripartite elections for president, members of parliament and local government councillors, outgoing President Lazarus Chakwera addressed the nation for the last time on state broadcaster MBC to concede defeat.
Chakwera, the leader of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), congratulated Mutharika of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in a speech from Kamuzu Palace in the capital Lilongwe on Wednesday afternoon.
MEC chairperson Annabel Mtalimanja appeared later in the evening to confirm Mutharika had won the presidential race — which had a record 17 candidates — with 3 035 249 votes, or 56.8% of the total, against 1 765 170 for Chakwera, easily crossing the 50% plus one threshold required for an outright win.
His acceptance of defeat however came after the high court in Lilongwe late on Tuesday dismissed a bid by Chakwera and the MCP to block the announcement of final results over alleged irregularities as premature.
As tension mounted prominent voices urged Chakwera to choose statesmanship over a protracted legal battle. Leading the calls was former president Bakili Muluzi, who defeated Malawi’s “president for life” Hastings Kamuzu Banda in the country’s first multi-party election in 1994.
With Mtalimanja’s official announcement Mutharika — who had been ousted in a historic 2020 court-ordered rerun after his 2019 victory was overturned over electoral irregularities — completed a remarkable political comeback.
Yet his win reflected less a rejection of Chakwera than the persistence of regional loyalties and widespread economic discontent. It also revealed divisions that will shape his next term.
The foundation of Mutharika’s success was the Democratic Progressive Party’s Southern Region stronghold.
“The vote was less a national endorsement and more a regional reclamation,” said Boniface Dulani, a political scientist at the University of Malawi.
“Mutharika’s campaign tapped into a sense of southern alienation under Chakwera. For many, this was about bringing the presidency back home.”
The return of Mutharika, who previously served as Malawi’s president from 2014 to 2020, also reflects desperation for change amid persistent economic problems including high inflation and unemployment in the landlocked nation of 22 million people.
According to the World Bank, more than 70% of Malawians live below the international poverty line.
Mutharika’s promise of a return to the “relative stability” of his earlier rule resonated in the south of the country. The Central Region, the Malawi Congress Party’s traditional base, stayed loyal but stagnant.
“Chakwera failed to expand beyond his base,” noted political analyst Ernest Thindwa.
“The hardships under his government dampened enthusiasm, even in the Central Region. People voted for him, but the protest vote against him was everywhere.”
In the Northern Region, a fragmented opposition helped Mutharika gain ground.
Although the electoral commission acknowledged complaints from the Malawi Congress Party, the United Democratic Front and the United Transformation Movement, it dismissed them before the final announcement. The MCP sought a high court injunction to halt the announcement of the results, but the bid was rejected.
Besides the president, voters also chose 229 MPs and 509 local councillors in the largest ballot since multiparty democracy returned in 1994.
Although 155 225 votes, or 2.8% of turnout, were voided, the MEC said the figure was too small to affect the overall outcome.
International observers praised the peaceful conduct of the election, and Mtalimanja declared the polls free and fair.
In his concession speech, Chakwera urged for calm and congratulated Mutharika, a gesture that drew widespread praise as a sign of democratic maturity.
Analysts view Mutharika’s win less as an endorsement of his vision than a protest against Chakwera’s failures.
“The election has laid bare Malawi’s divisions. Mutharika’s biggest task will be to bridge the north-south and centre-south divide. If he fails, those fractures will only deepen,” Dulani said.
“This election was a referendum against Chakwera. Mutharika is a known quantity, and people hope he can restore stability. But the real story is that voters punished Chakwera.”
Former president Joyce Banda, who was also a candidate, also congratulated Mutharika, wishing him well as he sets to grapple with Malawi’s economic crisis.
“The election of a new president is a testament to Malawians’ enduring trust in our democracy. I commend all citizens for the peaceful conduct during the campaign, on voting day, and while awaiting results,” Banda said.
Chakwera’s government faced criticism for indecision, fuel shortages, and sluggish responses to widespread hunger and a foreign exchange crisis. Fertilizer price spikes hit farmers in his Central Region base especially hard.
“This rejection shows that loyalty to political parties is no longer enough. Malawian voters want tangible results in service delivery and governance,” said Willy Kambwandira of the Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency.
Cape Town law professor Danwood Chirwa said the outgoing president had failed to defend his base in the Central Region or win over the North after riding a wave of civil society anger against the DPP’s arrogance in 2020.
“This time, people were tired of him,” Chirwa added.
This year’s election suggests voting patterns may be starting to move beyond traditional regional divides, said Chrispin Mphande, a historian at Mzuzu University, describing the outcome as “voting out of anger”.
Born in Thyolo’s rolling tea country on July 18, 1940, Mutharika’s early trajectory was scholarly, not political. After law school in London, he studied at Yale, completing a doctorate in 1969.
He spent the next four decades in academia: teaching in Tanzania and Ethiopia before anchoring himself at Washington University in St. Louis. There, he rose to become the Charles Nagel Professor of International and Comparative Law, publishing on constitutionalism and international economic law, arbitrating disputes, and consulting for the American Bar Association’s Africa programmes.
For years he seemed an intellectual exile, Malawi’s politics unfolding in the distance while he built a reputation as a measured, legalistic thinker.
His older brother, Bingu wa Mutharika, stormed to the presidency in 2004 and Peter, initially a discreet advisor, entered parliament in 2009 and quickly became a fixture in cabinet.
By 2011, whispers of succession filled Lilongwe’s corridors of power. But the dream was nearly derailed when Bingu died suddenly in 2012. In the tense hours after his death, Peter and senior allies were accused of plotting to prevent then vice president Joyce Banda from assuming the presidency.
Treason charges followed but were later abandoned. Two years later, Mutharika won the presidency in his own right, with just over a third of the vote.
His return to power five years after what had appeared to be the capping of his political career in 2020 is nothing short of remarkable but whether at 85 he has the stamina to pull Malawi out of its economic quagmire remains to be seen.