Malawi’s 2025 general election campaign season officially kicked off Sunday with two former presidents Peter Mutharika and Joyce Banda launching separate bids to unseat incumbent President Lazarus Chakwera, as the country grapples with its worst economic crisis in decades.
Addressing thousands of supporters in Blantyre, the country’s commercial capital, 85-year-old Mutharika of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) promised to pull the country out of what he termed “political and economic collapse.”
Mutharika, who led the country between 2014 and 2020, accused the current administration of failing to protect citizens from poverty, hunger, and state intimidation.
“Malawi is under oppression hunger, poverty, and fear of the very government that should be protecting us,” Mutharika said, urging supporters to rally behind a leadership change in the September 16 polls.
The retired law professor’s re-election in 2019 was nullified by the Constitutional Court over widespread irregularities, paving the way for Chakwera’s court-sanctioned victory in a rerun held the following year.
In a separate rally held in Ntcheu, central Malawi, former President Joyce Banda also declared her intention to return to State House.
The 74-year-old People’s Party leader, who governed Malawi from 2012 to 2014, pledged to tackle youth unemployment, revive the economy, and resolve a backlog in passport issuance that has hindered job-seeking Malawians from traveling abroad.
“If elected, my first task will be to fix the passport crisis, so our youth can access opportunities beyond our borders,” Banda told cheering supporters. She also promised to provide motorcycles to jobless youth as a means of promoting self-employment and economic independence.
Banda returned to Malawi after four years in exile following her 2014 electoral defeat, which was clouded by the infamous "Cashgate" corruption scandal. She has denied any wrongdoing.
The 2025 presidential race is already shaping up to be one of the most competitive in the country’s history. Alongside Banda and Mutharika, Vice President Saulos Chilima is also expected to challenge Chakwera, who is seeking a second term.
Economic discontent is expected to dominate the campaigns, with inflation reaching 27.1 percent in June, according to the National Statistical Office.
The World Bank estimates that nearly three-quarters of the country’s 21 million citizens live in extreme poverty.
Public frustration has been mounting, with protests erupting earlier this year over high living costs and accusations of fraud within the electoral commission.
Tensions rose further in June when unidentified assailants disrupted a protest demanding an independent audit of the voter roll and the resignation of electoral officials.
Opposition leaders have accused Chakwera’s ruling Malawi Congress Party (MCP) of stifling dissent claims the party has denied.
As campaigning intensifies, Malawians will be watching closely to see if the promises of familiar faces can offer a credible path out of the current crisis, or if the electorate will choose to stay the course with President Chakwera.
