Peter Mutharika Returns to Power in Malawi After Landslide Win

Malawians have voted back 85-year-old former president Peter Mutharika into office the second time, with a decisive 56.8% of the vote against incumbent Lazarus Chakwera’s 33%, according to official results from the 16 September 2025 presidential election announced on Wednesday, 24 September, 2025.

The result marks a dramatic political comeback for Mutharika, who was ousted just four years ago in a historic re-run of the disputed “Tipp-Ex election.” Chakwera, who had built his presidency on promises of economic renewal and reform, conceded defeat earlier on Thursday, 25th September 2025, admitting he had called Mutharika to congratulate him.

Voter turnout was high: nearly two-thirds of Malawi’s 11 million registered voters participated, with 76% casting ballots, a signal of just how strongly citizens felt about changing leadership. Mutharika’s emphatic victory signals both public frustration with Chakwera’s record and the cyclical nature of Malawian politics. It is the third straight election in which power has changed hands, a rare occurrence in African democracies.

Mutharika, a former U.S.-based law professor, carries a controversial legacy. His first presidency (2014–2020) was marred by allegations of corruption, including a 2018 case in which he was accused of receiving a $200,000 bribe in connection with a police food supply contract. Though eventually cleared, the scandal sparked mass protests and tarnished his image.

Despite that baggage, many voters appear to have chosen him as the “lesser evil,” a sign of how deeply disillusioned they had become with Chakwera’s tenure. Mutharika returns to power at a time of profound crisis. Malawi’s economy has struggled to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, with inflation above 20% for three consecutive years. Growth has consistently lagged behind population increase, leaving millions poorer. Foreign currency shortages have created rolling scarcities of fuel, fertilizer, and medicines, partly worsened by the central bank’s rigid currency peg, which has left the official rate at 1,734 Kwacha to the dollar while the black-market rate soars to 5,000. The climate crisis has further battered the country: multiple cyclones, including Cyclone Freddy in 2023 that killed over 1,000 people, have left long-lasting scars. A severe drought last year deepened food insecurity in a nation where the average annual income was just $508 in 2024, according to the World Bank. Adding to the challenge, international donors have pulled back. A recent IFPRI study estimated U.S. aid to Malawi would fall by 59% in 2025, cutting as much as 1% from GDP. The country’s exit from an IMF programme also closed the door to concessional loans and discouraged other donors.

Mutharika’s second act may prove even more difficult than his first. For many Malawians, the vote was less about belief in Mutharika’s leadership than about punishing Chakwera for presiding over an economic collapse. Yet as he returns to power, the octogenarian faces the same structural problems, fragile institutions, donor fatigue, climate disasters, and an economy stretched beyond its limits that toppled his predecessor.

Whether Mutharika can defy the odds or whether his second presidency will become another chapter in Malawi’s politics remains to be seen.