Malawi: Chakwera concedes defeat, Mutharika declared winner

Malawi’s president, Lazarus Chakwera has conceded defeat in the country’s presidential election, calling former leader Peter Mutharika the “presumptive winner.”  

In an address on national television on Wednesday just hours before the final results were announced, Chakwera said he had spoken with Mutharika to congratulate him.

"This outcome is a reflection of your collective will to have a change of government, and so it is only right that I concede defeat out of respect for your will as citizens and out of respect for the constitution," Chakwera said in his address to Malawians.  

Partial results released on Monday suggested Mutharika had received about 60 percent of the vote the September 16 vote.  

In the five years since 70-year-old Chakwera took office, Malawi has faced economic stagnation. A cyclone and drought wiped out crops and increased food insecurity, while inflation has soared. 

Eighty-five-year-old Mutharika was in office from 2014 to 2020 and campaigned on a platform of a return to better days and experienced leadership. During his tenure, he was credited with lowering inflation and improving infrastructure but critics accused him of cronyism. 

Election rerun

This was the first national election in Malawi since a chaotic 2019 vote, when then-incumbent Mutharika was declared the winner against Chakwera. But a court nullified the result because of widespread irregularities that included evidence that correction fluid had been used to change vote tally sheets. That election was rerun more than a year later in 2020 and Chakwera won.  

Chakwera's election was greeted at the time by street celebrations. But the 70-year-old former evangelical preacher has since lost popularity, largely due to an ongoing economic crisis in Malawi, one of the world's poorest countries.