Former President Peter Mutharika has staged a dramatic political comeback, winning Malawi’s presidential election with 56.8% of the vote.
The country’s electoral commission announced the results on Wednesday evening.
Mutharika, 85, who led Malawi from 2014 to 2020, secured just over 3 million votes to defeat incumbent President Lazarus Chakwera, who polled 1.77 million votes (33%). Dalitso Kabambe, former central bank governor, finished third with 5%, while former President Joyce Banda came fourth with 1.6%.
Voter turnout was strong, with 5.5 million of the 7.2 million registered voters—76%—casting ballots.
Although Chakwera’s party flagged “serious anomalies” in the count, electoral commission chair Justice Annabel Mtalimanja praised the smooth conduct of the polls. The swearing-in is scheduled within seven days.
Mutharika inherits a nation in economic crisis, marked by fuel shortages, foreign currency scarcity, and inflation above 27%.
Successive climate disasters—including Cyclone Freddy in 2023 and a severe drought last year—have deepened hardship in the largely rural country of 21 million.
This victory marks a return for Mutharika, a former law professor, who lost power to Chakwera in a historic 2020 rerun after Malawi’s courts annulled his disputed 2019 win over electoral irregularities.
Malawi’s election also covered parliamentary and local government races, with the economy topping voters’ concerns.
The vote came against the backdrop of last year’s tragic death of Vice President Saulos Chilima in a military plane crash, a leader seen by many as the country’s future president.
Mutharika’s win extends the legacy of his family in Malawian politics: his late brother, Bingu wa Mutharika, served as president from 2004 until his death in 2012.
