Malawi’s former president Mutharika, 84, to challenge Chakwera in next year’s elections

Former Malawian president Peter Mutharika. (Riccardo Savi/Getty Images)

The 84-year-old Peter Mutharika says he is tried and tested in solving Malawi’s challenges.Mutharika wants to work with late vice president Saulos Chilima’s United Transformation Movement.Former president Joyce Banda cut ties with Lazarus Chakwera and the Tonse Alliance on Sunday.

Former Malawian president Peter Mutharika could be set for a thriller comeback after his endorsement by the main opposition to challenge Lazarus Chakwera of the Malawi Congress Party in next year’s general elections.

Mutharika, 84, lost the presidency in a re-run election in June 2020 in which Chakwera had the backing of a coalition of opposition parties known as the Tonse Alliance.

In his address during the televised Democratic Progress Party (DPP) convention, where he was elected unopposed, Mutharika vowed to fix the country’s economy, with one of his goals being to cut the national debt.

“I assure you, I will rescue this country from destruction, incompetence, and maladministration,” he said.

“Give us two years. We did it in six months in 2014 [during his first term]. We were reducing inflation to single digits and we had the highest reserves [forex] in the history of this country – $1.1 billion, this had never happened before.”

The DPP will also seek to work with the United Transformation Movement (UTM), the party that was led by late vice president Saulos Chilima, who died in a plane crash early this year.

Chilima was brought into politics from the private sector to become Mutharika’s vice president in 2014.

However, before the end of that term, they had fallen out.

READ | No survivors in Malawi VP Chilima’s plane crash, president announces

Since, constitutionally, a vice president cannot be fired, Chilima built his political capital when he was in government.

In 2019, he challenged for the top job with a good showing at the nullified polls.

He would later join with nine others, including Chakwera, to form the Tonse Alliance, which also landed him the vice presidency.

But the Tonse Alliance developed cracks, leading to Chakwera persecuting Chilima, who by the time of his death had been relegated to a figurehead.

In July, UTM announced that it was leaving the Tonse Alliance, but Michael Usi who replaced Chilima didn’t resign from the government. 

Five parties have also left what they called a “sinking ship”. 

Former president Joyce Banda’s People’s Party (PP) on Sunday announced its departure from the alliance.

The News24 Africa Desk is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation. The stories produced through the Africa Desk and the opinions and statements that may be contained herein do not reflect those of the Hanns Seidel Foundation.

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