A bankrupt economy pits President Lazarus Chakwera against the man he dethroned, Peter Mutharika, forcing Malawians to choose between a leader accused of crippling hardship and one ousted for electoral fraud.
In the bustling markets of Lilongwe and the parched fields of the south and north, a grim paradox shapes Malawi’s future.
Five years after being toppled by a court ruling, 85-year-old Peter Mutharika is riding Malawi’s despair in a bid to reclaim power. The country has been gripped by an election that pitted President Lazarus Chakwera against the man he dethroned.
Fuelled by economic pain and a wave of nostalgia, Mutharika has re-emerged as a serious contender to unseat Chakwera, the very man who replaced him in a 2020 rerun once hailed as a triumph for African democracy.
This contest was more than politics; it was a fight for survival and a test of Malawi’s fragile democracy.
As the nation endures its worst economic crisis in decades, Malawians faced a haunting choice: return to a leader once rejected for undermining democracy or persist with an incumbent blamed for hardship.
“People feel trapped,” said Michael Jana, a Malawian political scientist at Wits University, in an interview with AllAfrica.com. “The economy is in crisis, the politicians are the same, and many Malawians don’t believe this election will change their lives.”
The paradox is stark: Mutharika, ousted at 80 for presiding over a tainted election, now returns as a frontrunner, with unofficial results putting him far ahead of Chakwera.
His 2019 victory was nullified after the Constitutional Court exposed irregularities, including the notorious use of Tipp-Ex to alter tally sheets. That landmark ruling was celebrated across Africa as a democratic breakthrough.
Yet today, battered by soaring inflation and a collapsing currency, Malawians are looking backward for relief. When Chakwera took power, inflation hovered near 8%. By early 2025, it had exploded past 30%.
A 44% devaluation of the kwacha, compounded by Cyclone Freddy and chronic foreign exchange shortages, has pushed more than 70% of the population below the poverty line.
Chakwera acknowledged the pain. “I know that all of you are feeling the agony of the painful corrections we have had to make to give our economy a fresh start,” he told the nation in a national address a few days before elections.
His administration pointed to external factors and some domestic successes, such as infrastructure projects and a foreign policy that had locked aid.
“In the first three years of President Lazarus Chakwera’s administration, the government was able to build roads despite challenges posed by disasters such as the Covid-19 pandemic,” said MCP spokesperson Jessie Kabwila during the campaign.
Still, deep disillusionment has given the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) fresh momentum. Their campaign message was blunt: life was better under Mutharika.
As the nation awaits the final verdict, the choice is less about vision than survival.
Political analyst George Chaima noted that despite Mutharika’s record, many voters were swayed by simple comparison.
“Malawians were not going through rough times like we are now,” he said. “If you look at the current status quo, you’ll find that the elites are living a very lavish lifestyle… they don’t feel the pinch that people are feeling now.”
That misery has stirred a wave of nostalgia, something Mutharika’s DPP has exploited with precision.
“When Mutharika was in power, fertiliser was cheap and food was plentiful,” said Eliza Justin, a market trader in Lilongwe. “Now people scramble just to buy maize.”
Polls through late 2024 and mid-2025 put Mutharika’s DPP consistently ahead of Chakwera’s Malawi Congress Party. The opposition’s message struck a weary electorate.
But Mutharika’s resurgence carries baggage. He expelled rivals such as Kondwani Nankhumwa, while ex-central bank governor Dalitso Kabambe branded his record a legacy of failure, division, and betrayal.
Mutharika’s camp dismissed the attacks as sour grapes, but the fractures raise doubts about whether he could govern effectively even if he wins.
Then there is his age. At 85, his halting campaign pace fuelled scepticism about his stamina for the demands of the presidency.
His record is a study in contradiction. Supporters hailed him for launching infrastructure projects, stabilising the currency, and briefly taming inflation.
During his tenure, roads, power plants, and universities rose, many with Chinese support. Inflation even dropped from 24% to single digits.
But his six years in office were also marred by blackouts, food shortages, and corruption scandals. Allegations of bribery, tax evasion, and misuse of public funds dogged his administration.
In 2018, mass protests erupted over claims he pocketed more than $200,000 from a businessman with a state contract, charges he was later cleared of.
The deepest stain remains the 2019 election. The Constitutional Court’s ruling painted a picture of an electoral system compromised under his watch.
To many, a vote for Mutharika was a vote to overlook the very institutions that once rescued Malawi’s democracy.
As ballots are tallied, both Mutharika and Chakwera have prematurely claimed victory, prompting the electoral commission to urge calm. Analysts expect neither will reach the 50%+1 threshold, making a runoff almost certain.
“Malawians will vote again; that is a fact,” said political scientist John Makwenda. “The two top candidates must brace themselves for another gruelling campaign.”
The choice was bleak: a sitting president blamed for economic collapse or a former president ejected for electoral fraud.
“It is profound desperation,” said journalist Golden Matonga, “that has made the once-banished Mutharika, now in his mid-80s, no longer seen as a witch to be exorcised but as a possible, if unlikely, cure to the curse of hunger and despair.”
“This election is a vote against Lazarus Chakwera’s record and performance in office,” said Boniface Dulani, a political scientist at the University of Malawi. “My forecast is that the opposition candidate could take the lead but still poll below the 50+1 requirement.”
Born in Thyolo in 1940, Mutharika was once a respected academic before turning politician. A Yale-trained lawyer, he spent nearly four decades teaching international law in the US before returning home under the wing of his brother, President Bingu wa Mutharika.
He entered parliament in 2009, rose swiftly through ministerial posts, and won the presidency in 2014 with just 36.4% of the vote.
His personal life is quieter: three children from his late first wife, Christophine, and a 2014 marriage to former MP Gertrude Maseko.
