Malawi\u2019s former President Peter Mutharika has been declared the winner of last week\u2019s elections, in a huge comeback for the 85-year-old.<\/p>\n
Official results show that he won 57% of the vote, compared to the 33% of President Lazarus Chakwera, 70.<\/p>\n
Chakwera, a pastor before entering politics, conceded defeat ahead of the final result being declared, phoning Mutharika to congratulate him on his \u201chistoric win\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mutharika, a former professor of law, served as president from 2014 to 2020, when he lost to Chakwera by a wide margin.<\/p>\n
He inherits an economy that is in deep crisis, with a severe shortage of fuel and foreign currency in the poor southern African state.<\/p>\n
The official inflation rate is close to 30%, with a frozen chicken in a supermarket in the capital, Lilongwe, costing about $20 (\u00a315), in a nation where most people live on $2 a day or less.<\/p>\n
Mutharika is due to address the nation later on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The election commission said it took the full eight days it was allowed to announce the result because it wanted to check everything carefully and address the complaints first.<\/p>\n
The 2019 election, also won by Mutharika, was annulled by the country\u2019s highest court, which found there had been widespread irregularities, including the use of correction fluid to alter results.<\/p>\n
Chakwera won the rerun by a huge margin the following year.<\/p>\n
This was the pair\u2019s fourth electoral duel.<\/p>\n
Mutharika\u2019s older brother Bingu also served as president and died in office in 2012.<\/p>\n
In his concession speech, Chakwera said that even though he had concerns about \u201cirregularities\u201d and \u201canomalies\u201d, he was accepting the outcome out of respect for the majority of Malawians\u2019 \u201ccollective will to have a change of government\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe anomalies do not necessarily mean that the election result projecting Professor Mutharika as the winner is not credible or a reflection of the will of the people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
His speech sparked celebrations among Mutharika\u2019s supporters in Lilongwe, with hundreds singing and dancing on the streets.<\/p>\n
Motorists could be heard beeping their horns and playing loud music, while pedestrians danced, sang and chanted \u201cadadi\u201d, which means father in the local Chichewa language.<\/p>\n
Appearing keen to see the back of Chakwera, a group of men in Lilongwe ripped down a poster of the outgoing president\u2019s head and began stamping on it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAchoke!\u201d they chanted, which means \u201che must go\u201d in Chichewa.<\/p>\n
Mutharika\u2019s supporters later gathered to celebrate at the local Civo stadium where Chakwera held his final campaign rally. The celebrations continued overnight.<\/p>\n
This result can be seen more as a rejection of Chakwera than a victory for Mutharika.<\/p>\n
Under President Chakwera, Malawi\u2019s list of problems just grew too long.<\/p>\n
Corruption on a grand scale, a weak economy, high living costs, frequent power cuts and a shortage of foreign currency pushed Malawians to look elsewhere for leadership.<\/p>\n
Although these same problems existed during Mutharika\u2019s tenure, they worsened under Chakwera.<\/p>\n
Chakwera\u2019s allies blamed the crisis on factors out of his control, including drought and other natural disasters, the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
However, Mutharika\u2019s campaign mantra \u2013 \u201ca return to proven leadership\u201d \u2013 resonated with Malawian voters.<\/p>\n
But now Mutharika will have to show that he can once again tackle inflation, as he did in his first term.<\/p>\n
Mutharika was rarely seen in public during the campaign, in contrast to Chakwera who held numerous rallies across Malawi.<\/p>\n
As a result, speculation about Mutharika\u2019s health is rife and there are questions about whether he has the stamina to lead Malawi again at the age of 85.<\/p>\n
The swearing-in ceremony must be organised between seven and 30 days after the announcement of the result.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Malawi\u2019s former President Peter Mutharika has been declared the winner of last week\u2019s elections, in a huge comeback for the 85-year-old. Official results show that he won 57% of the vote, compared to the 33% of President Lazarus Chakwera, 70. Chakwera, a pastor before entering politics, conceded defeat ahead of the final result being declared, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122031\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}