Malawi had a general elections in May 2019, the election was marked by irregularities. The President Prof Arthur Peter Mutharika who was going for his second term in office was announced as the winner and was immediately sworn into office.
Since last year, there have been series of protests from the masses against the government of Murtharika. I have never seen a people uniting as one to fight for their rights as the people of Malawi. There were lots of nationwide protests against the government. Even when the police threatened their lives, it never gave them any cause to relent.
The opposition parties took the election case to court and to my surprise, in February this year, the court annulled the elections citing vote tampering and gave mandate that a fresh election should be conducted within 90 days; and in this case, the winner must have 50+1% of the votes.
This made all the numerous political parties to start merging. Chakwera who came second in the May election lead a nine-party coalition. Within them, Lazarus Chakwera of MCP became the presidential candidate while Saulos Chilima of UTM became the Vice.
At the outbreak of Covid-19 in March this year here in Malawi, the president Peter Mutharika gave a nation wide broadcast in which he placed a 21 day lockdown to contain the virus. Malawians protested against it. No one went on lockdown. According to them, the president wants to use Covid-19 to extend his stay in office. They took the case to court, the people won. That was the height of it all.
Last week Tuesday, the rerun election was conducted and the result came out last night announcing that the opposition party of Lazarus Chakwera defeated the incumbent president by 58.57%.
The new president Dr Lazarus Chakwera, a Pentecostal preacher and former theology lecturer will first have to heal a nation that’s been through many months of political turmoil. This news have uplifted the spirit of Malawians, bringing smiles to their face once more.
Congratulations to Malawi!
