By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Former President of Malawi, Peter Mutharika is projected to have secured victory in the last week’s presidential election with more than 56% of the vote, private broadcaster Times Television reported on Tuesday, citing its unofficial results dashboard.
This came after the result from the country’s electoral commission late on Monday showed Mutharika had built a commanding lead over incumbent Lazarus Chakwera.
A candidate must secure over 50% of valid votes for an outright win, otherwise there will be a second round of voting, called rerun.
Political analysts had predicted that Mutharika, 85, who was in power between 2014 and 2020, would mount a strong challenge to Chakwera’s re-election bid, as the economy has worsened since the last election.
The September 16 election was the fourth showdown between Mutharika and Chakwera, 70.
The rivalry between Mutharika and Chakwera came to a climax when Malawi’s constitutional court in 2019 annulled Mutharika’s election victory due to irregularities including the use of correction fluid on results sheets. A re-run in 2020 saw Chakwera emerge victorious.
Ex-pastor Chakwera pledged to crack down on corruption when he took office, but critics have accused his administration of handling corruption cases selectively and slowly.
The electoral commission has until the end of Wednesday to announce the full presidential election result.
