Malawi President-elect Peter Mutharika/SCREENGRABPeter Mutharika is the new president-elect of Malawi for a second time, defeating incumbent Lazarus Chakwera.
Mutharika, an 85-year-old former lawyer and law lecturer, makes a comeback to power after leading Malawi from 2014 to 2020 but lost the subsequent election to Chakwera.
He is the brother of the late President Bingu wa Mutharika, who died in office in 2012.
In the votes announced so far, Mutharika has got about 66% of the votes compared to Chakwera's 24%.
The election commission will announce the official result shortly.
Malawians have been anxiously awaiting the final result, eight days after they went to the polls.
The country's election commission said it had taken time to ensure the results are accurate.
Chakwera in an address to the nation on Wednesday afternoon conceded and congratulated his successor and predecessor Peter Mutharika.
He added that he has already sent his personal congratulations to Mutharika over a phone call.
Chakwera’s last-ditch attempt to block the release of presidential election results flopped on Sunday evening, after the High Court in Lilongwe declined to grant orders halting the declaration.
Chakwera, through his Malawi Congress Party (MCP), had filed a judicial review petition seeking conservatory orders to stop the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) from announcing results, citing what he termed “massive irregularities.”
In its ruling issued at 6:50 p.m. Malawian time, the court allowed the judicial review case to proceed but refused to restrain MEC from announcing the outcome.
The MEC confirmed that 4,689,172 Malawians voted in the September 16 polls, representing a 65.1% turnout, slightly below the 67% turnout in the 2020 elections.
