In Malawi, voters have chosen 85 year old former president Peter Mutharika over the sitting leader who oversaw years of economic turmoil, soaring inflation, shortages of essentials, climate disasters, and reduced international aid.
Official results from the 16 September presidential election, released Wednesday, show Mutharika securing 56.8% of the vote against 33% for Lazarus Chakwera.
Earlier in the day, Chakwera confirmed that he had called Mutharika to concede defeat. Roughly two thirds of nearly 11 million eligible Malawians registered to vote, with turnout reaching 76%.
Mutharika’s decisive comeback marks the third consecutive election in Malawi where power has shifted. In the previous election, famously called the “Tipp-Ex election,” Chakwera unseated Mutharika after a court annulled the 2019 results when it was discovered that correction fluid had been used to alter outcomes.
Mutharika, a former law professor, was once accused by the nation’s anti-corruption bureau in 2018 of accepting a $200,000 kickback linked to a multimillion dollar police food supply contract. Though protests followed, he was later cleared of wrongdoing, insisting the payment was simply an “honest donation” to his party.
