When he topped the polls in Malawi’s Presidential election in June, 65-year-old Lazarus Chakwera broke through a number of African barriers. It is infrequent enough to see a peaceful transition to power from an opposition leader, but what is surely a first in post-colonial African politics is that Chakwera gained the Presidency after a Constitutional Court (reaffirmed on appeal by the Supreme Court) overturned the results of a controversial vote in May that had been ‘won’ by the incumbent Peter Mutharika. This election was widely regarded to be fraudulent and it was the second time the corrupt Mutharika regime had been installed by a lapdog electoral commission that ignored the constitutional provision that the President required at least 50 per cent of the popular vote. This time Malawians had had enough and launched a campaign of relentless pressure on the streets and in the media to ensure the judiciary and security forces guaranteed their rights.
Chakwera and his Malawian Congress Party made common cause with Malawian economist Saulos Chilima (now Vice-President), running for election together as the Tonse Alliance to ensure the opposition vote was not split as in 2019. Tonse means ‘everyone together’ and their support, amounting to nearly 60 per cent of the vote, came from all sections
of the country.
