BLANTYRE (Reuters) – Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera has secured his party’s backing to run for a second term in next year’s elections, but his chances of staying in power may depend on whether his Malawi Congress Party can find a strong alliance partner.
The MCP, which had formed an electoral alliance with the United Transformation Movement since 2020, now lacks a strong ally after the UTM announced its withdrawal from the partnership following the death of former Vice President Saulos Klaus Chilima in a plane crash in June.
Chilima was chairman of the UTM and his party helped Chakwera win an absolute majority in the 2020 elections. In Malawi’s political system, a presidential candidate must receive more than 50% of the vote to be declared the winner.
Chakwera told delegates at an MCP congress supporting his candidacy for a second term that he believed support for his party had grown since the last election.
“This is no ordinary party congress because it is the congress of the party that will win in 2025,” Chakwera said in his address late Thursday.
“We are getting stronger every day as more and more people from other parties join us, the founding families of the MCP stay here and those who left the party return.”
Founded by the country’s first president, Hastings Kamuzu Banda, the MCP returned to power in 2020 after 26 years in opposition, promising to fight corruption and boost the economy.
But opposition parties claim that the MCP has not kept its promises because the economy remains unstable.
Chakwera’s main challenger is former President Peter Mutharika, who is expected to have his candidates endorsed at the congress of the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party later this month.
(Reporting by Frank Phiri; Editing by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo and Toby Chopra)
