Two former Malawian presidents on Sunday launched separate campaigns to unseat President Lazarus Chakwera in the country’s upcoming general elections scheduled for September 16.
Concerns about runaway inflation nearing 30 percent and a severe economic crisis are set to dominate the polls in the small southern African nation, where nearly three-quarters of the population of 21 million lives in extreme poverty, according to the World Bank.
Addressing thousands of supporters in Malawi’s second-largest city, Blantyre, Chakwera’s longtime rival Peter Mutharika, 85, vowed to “rescue” the country from political and economic hardship.
The retired law professor, who leads the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party, served as president from 2014 to 2020, when his re-election was annulled by the courts due to irregularities.
“Today, Malawi is under oppression — hunger, poverty, and fear of the very government meant to protect us,” Mutharika said. “We should respect government, not fear it.”
Opposition leaders have accused Chakwera’s ruling Malawi Congress Party of stifling dissent.
Tensions escalated in June when unidentified men attacked a small protest demanding an independent audit of the voters’ roll and resignation of top electoral commission officials over fraud accusations.
The ruling party has dismissed claims that its supporters were behind the attack.
Former president Joyce Banda, of the People’s Party, also launched her campaign Sunday in the central town of Ntcheu, pledging to prioritise youth empowerment and job creation.
Banda, a 74-year-old educator and women’s rights activist, became the first woman to become president in Malawi in 2012, stepping up from vice president after the death of Bingu wa Mutharika.
She left the country in 2014 under a cloud, having lost the presidential election and facing questioning over a corruption scandal known as “Cashgate”.
She later returned to Malawi after four years in exile.
“If elected, my first task will be to fix the passport crisis, so our youth can seek employment abroad,” she told supporters, promising to provide motorcycles to unemployed youth to promote financial independence.
At least two other candidates — including the current vice president — have joined the race against incumbent Chakwera, 70, who won 58 percent of the vote in the court-ordered 2020 rerun.
Malawi saw large protests earlier this year as it faces its worst economic crisis in decades, with the year-on-year inflation rate in June hitting 27.1 percent, according to the national statistics office.