Mutharika, the former president of Malawi, leads the poll early
Former president of Malawi Peter Mutharika is ahead early in this week’s election, which was his fourth run against current president Lazarus Chakwera. Provisional returns from a quarter of councils show this.
Based on results provided by the country’s election commission, Reuters calculated that Chakwera got about 39% of the valid votes cast, while Mutharika got about 51%. This happened in nine of the country’s 36 councils.
To win outright, a candidate must get more than half of the legal votes. If they don’t, there will be a second round.
Political experts thought that the election on September 16 would be a close race between Mutharika and Chakwera, who are the presidential candidates of the two largest parties in the government of the Southern African country.
Since Chakwera, 70, was elected five years ago, Malawi’s economy has stayed the same.
Two terrible weather events, one caused by climate change and the other by it, have destroyed crops and made things harder for many people. With MWCPIY=ECI, prices have been going up faster than 20% for more than three years.
During his rule from 2014 to 2020, Mutharika, an 85-year-old former law professor, was praised for improving infrastructure and lowering inflation. However, he was also accused of favoritism, which he denied.
Chakwera promised to clean up graft when he ran for office, but his handling of cases has been criticized for being slow and picky.
The election board has until the end of September 24 to give the official results of the presidential poll. It has told candidates not to claim victory too soon and says it is checking each and every count sheet to make sure it is correct.
The constitutional court threw out Mutharika’s win in the 2019 election because of problems, such as the use of correction fluid on the results sheets. They ran again in 2020 and Chakwera won.
