Peter Mutharika is president of Malawi again. The 85-year-old won the general election held on 16 September 2025 with 56.8% of the vote, defeating the incumbent, Lazarus Chakwera, who took 33%. It is one of the most remarkable comebacks in African politics: five years after a court annulled his re-election and he lost the rerun, Mutharika is back in State House — and this time he won in the first round, with no runoff needed.
The Malawi Electoral Commission announced the result on 24 September 2025. Mutharika, standing for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), received 3,035,249 votes against 1,765,170 for Chakwera of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP). The winning margin was 1,270,079 votes — 23.8 percentage points. Turnout was 76.4% — 5,502,982 of 7,203,390 registered voters — with 5,347,757 valid votes. Seventeen candidates stood; none of the other fifteen took more than 4%.
Chakwera conceded before the official announcement. Mutharika was sworn in on 4 October 2025 at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre, alongside Vice-President Jane Ansah, becoming Malawi’s seventh president, the first to serve two non-consecutive terms, and the oldest person ever to take the office, at 85.
The economy decided it
The vote was dominated by the state of the economy. Reuters reported that voters rejected Chakwera after five years of worsening economic crisis in one of the world’s poorest countries, with soaring living costs at the centre of the campaign. In his inaugural address, Mutharika said his administration was inheriting a country in economic crisis, and vowed to root out corruption and rebuild the economy.
The numbers explain the scale of the rejection. In the June 2020 rerun, Chakwera won about 58% of the vote. In 2025 he took 33% — a fall of roughly 25 percentage points in five years. Mutharika, meanwhile, turned a court-ordered defeat into a first-round win: he cleared the 50%-plus-one threshold outright, so no second round was needed.
A comeback in four acts
May 2019: Mutharika wins re-election. The opposition challenges the result, citing irregularities including the use of correction fluid on tally sheets.
February 2020: The Constitutional Court annuls the 2019 election — only the second time an African court has overturned a presidential result — and orders a fresh vote.
June 2020: Chakwera wins the rerun with about 58% of the vote. Mutharika leaves office after six years as president (2014–2020).
September–October 2025: Mutharika, 85, wins 56.8% in the first round on 16 September, is declared winner on 24 September, and is sworn in on 4 October. It was the fourth presidential contest between the two men.
The process itself held up. Election observers recorded a high number of spoiled ballots — 155,225, or 2.8% of votes cast — but the outcome was not formally challenged in court by the main contenders, and the transfer of power was peaceful. That matters: Malawi’s courts set the standard for the region in 2020, and in 2025 its voters, not its judges, delivered the verdict.
What to watch now
Mutharika’s second term will be judged on the same issue that won him the election: the cost of living. Three tests will show whether the comeback delivers.
First, fuel and foreign exchange. Shortages of both dogged Chakwera’s presidency. If shelves and filling stations stay empty, the goodwill of a landslide fades fast.
Second, the budget. Mutharika’s first budget will show whether his government can stabilise prices without cutting the public spending Malawians depend on — and how it handles relations with the IMF and donors.
Third, the politics of age. At 85, Mutharika is the oldest serving leader in Africa bar two. Malawi’s median age is about 18. How a government led by an 85-year-old speaks to a country of young people — and who succeeds him — will shape the DPP long before the next election in 2030.
The lesson of 2025 travels beyond Malawi. In a year when incumbents across southern Africa were under pressure, Malawian voters removed a president who had beaten Mutharika by a landslide five years earlier — and returned the man he replaced. For the region’s democrats, that is the point: the system worked, the loser conceded, and the winner now has to fix the economy that put him back in office. For more on the votes still to come in the region, see our guide to African elections in 2027. South Africa’s voters delivered a similar message to the ANC in their local elections — incumbents who cannot fix services lose, whatever their history.
Frequently asked questions
Who won the Malawi 2025 election?
Peter Mutharika of the DPP, with 56.8% of the vote (3,035,249 votes). Lazarus Chakwera of the MCP took 33% (1,765,170 votes).
Why did Chakwera lose?
The economy. Voters rejected him after five years of worsening economic crisis, with soaring living costs dominating the campaign. His vote fell from about 58% in 2020 to 33% in 2025.
When is Malawi’s next election?
The next general election is due in 2030, five years after the 2025 vote. Presidential, parliamentary and local elections are held together.
