Peter Mutharika, an ageing president returns to 'rescue' Malawi

Malawi's incoming president, Peter Mutharika, is a low-key 85-year-old former Washington law professor whose 2014-2020 term is remembered as better days for the economically desperate southern African country, despite its own failings.

He was re-elected to lead the largely poor country of 21 million people with nearly 57 percent of ballots, a landslide ahead of President Lazarus Chakwera's 33 percent, the election authority announced Wednesday.

Mutharika is to be sworn in between seven and 30 days of the declaration of his victory.

It was a dramatic return to power for the visibly ageing politician whose slim 2019 election win was nullified on tampering charges. The Constitutional Court ordered a rerun the following year which was won by Chakwera.

Mutharika's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ran a vigorous campaign ahead of the September 16 vote, promising a "return to proven leadership" in the predominantly young nation, even though its leader was often absent from several of its events.

While some of Mutharika's physical activities may be limited, "his strength relies very much in his legacy," said Mavuto Bamusi, an analyst with the Malawi Political Science Association.

After five years of economic mismanagement under Chakwera's administration, Mutharika's first term was seen as the "glorious past" of better prices, in particular for fertiliser, a necessity in a country where most families run small farms, he told AFP.

Mutharika had also assembled a capable team of economists and brought inflation down to single digits. It soared to more than 33 percent under Chakwera's administration.

But the period was stained by a ballooning national debt, food shortages and allegations of corruption.

Scandals

With law degrees from Yale and the University of London, Mutharika left Malawi in the 1960s to settle in the United States, going on to spend decades away.

The expert in constitutional law returned in 1993 to help draft the first democratic constitution after the fall of dictator Hastings Banda.

Following another stint in the United States, he was back again in 2004 when his brother Bingu wa Mutharika was elected president. Peter became Bingu's right-hand man, apparently groomed to be his successor.

He won a seat in parliament in 2009 and headed several ministries.

Bingu died in office in 2012 from a heart attack and Mutharika was accused of attempting to conceal the death for two days in an alleged bid to secure the job for himself, preventing the vice president from taking over.

He faced charges, including treason, that were dropped when he took office two years later, after winning the 2014 elections with just over 36 percent against Chakwera's 28 percent.

In 2018, Mutharika faced a public outcry over $200,000 he allegedly received from a businessman under investigation over a multi-million-dollar deal to supply food to the police.

He won around 39 percent of the 2019 vote, dubbed the "Tippex election" because of tampering, including the use of corrective fluid on ballot papers, but crashed out to Chakwera in the rerun.

Distant, low-key

Last week's election was as much a vote against Chakwera's disappointing term as one in favour of Mutharika, said Boniface Dulani, a political science professor.

Running on a platform of a "return to proven leadership", Mutharika vowed to transform the economy, including by ending a crippling foreign exchange shortage that led to major fuel shortages, promoting industrialisation and developing agriculture.

"I want to rescue this country," he told his final campaign rally.

A distant and understated personality, Mutharika was not known for decisiveness, Dulani said. "He's not someone who really inspires a lot of leadership characteristics. He doesn't have any clear positions," he said.

"The economic problems we are in require quite a lot to turn this economy around, and I don't think that's going to happen," the political science professor told AFP.