Malawi - Politics

Presidential and parliamentary elections were held in May 1994. Bakili Muluzi won the presidential election, obtaining about one-third more votes than his nearest rival, Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda. His party, the United Democratic Front (UDF), obtained the largest number of seats in the parliamentary elections, but not an overall majority.

In September 1994, Muluzi reshuffled his cabinet and broadened its political composition, appointing ministers from the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD) and other smaller parties; this gave the new government the majority needed to push its legislative programme through parliament. Chakufwa Chihana was nominated to the new office of second vice state president. The Malawi Congress Party (MCP) remained the strongest opposition party.

There was a further cabinet reshuffle in May 1996, following Chihana’s resignation in protest at alleged corruption in government. Chihana remained leader of AFORD, but the party was divided over his resignation, some members with ministerial posts resigning and others opting to remain in office.

In the run-up to the 1999 elections, an opposition alliance of the MCP and AFORD put forward Gwanda Chakuamba as presidential candidate with Chihana as his running-mate. When the elections were finally held in June, Muluzi won the presidency with 52% of votes cast while Chakuamba secured 45%. In the National Assembly, the UDF won 93 seats, the MCP 66 and AFORD 29, a result that gave the opposition alliance a parliamentary majority. However, by August 1999, with the support of four independents, Muluzi gained control of parliament and his position was subsequently strengthened by a succession of by-election victories.

Following a poor harvest in 2000/01, a combination of severe floods and drought devastated food crops in 2001 and by 2002 the country faced food shortages. Meanwhile, its strategic grain reserve of some 167,000 tonnes had been sold off, and by mid-2002 more than 500,000 people were estimated by the World Food Programme to be in need of food aid, increasing to a peak of 3.6 million people in February 2003, after which the new harvest brought recovery to most parts of the country.

Speculation that Muluzi would decide to stand for a third term at the 2004 election, requiring an amendment to the constitution, ended in July 2002, after a narrow majority of parliamentarians had voted against such an amendment. Then in April 2003 Dr Bingu wa Mutharika was confirmed as the UDF’s presidential candidate; Muluzi appointed four AFORD members as cabinet ministers and AFORD agreed to support the UDF candidate at the next election.

In a close contest in May 2004, Mutharika (UDF) won the presidential election with 35.9%, John Tembo (MCP) coming second with 27.1% and Chakuamba (Mgwirizano Coalition) third with 25.7%. In the simultaneous parliamentary elections MCP took 60 seats, UDF 49, Mgwirizano Coalition 16 and UDF’s ally AFORD six. Though both the ruling UDF coalition and the MCP claimed to have won presidential and parliamentary elections, Mutharika was sworn in as president and formed a government while the opposition mounted violent protests. In the succeeding weeks the president secured the support of first Chakuamba and then the National Democratic Alliance. However, in February 2005, with the support of majority of his cabinet, Chakuamba and a number of MPs, he left the UDF to form a new party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

In the presidential election in May 2009, Mutharika received 66% of votes, a substantially higher share than in 2004. His main challenger, MCP leader Tembo, took 31%. In the parliamentary elections, the ruling DPP won 114 seats, the MCP 26, the UDF 17 and independents 32. Before the elections former president Muluzi made a further attempt to run for the presidency. The electoral commission ruled that he was not eligible because he had already served two terms, the maximum allowed by the constitution. Muluzi appealed this decision in the High Court, which upheld the electoral commission’s ruling. He later made an appeal to the Constitutional Court, which also upheld the ruling.