Malawi’s Lazarus Chakwera: “It is just proper that I concede defeat out of respect on your will as residents and out of respect for the structure.”
Mutharika has managed to safe an estimated 66 per cent the votes solid in comparison with the incumbent’s simply over 24 per cent.
Chakwere: “It was clear that my rival Peter Mutharika has an insurmountable lead over me. Within the days that stay, I need you to know that I’m dedicated to a peaceable switch of energy.”
President Lazarus Chakwera of Malawi has accepted that former President Peter Mutharika defeated him throughout the election executed final week. In a speech made on Wednesday to a nation on edge for the reason that polls have been executed final week, Chakwera, 70, informed the nation that he has already reached out to President elect Mutharika.
“It is just proper that I concede defeat out of respect on your will as residents and out of respect for the structure,” Chakwera acknowledged, including: “It was clear that my rival Peter Mutharika has an insurmountable lead over me. Within the days that stay, I need you to know that I’m dedicated to a peaceable switch of energy.”
Based on knowledge from the nation’s electoral company, Mutharika has managed to safe an estimated 66 per cent the votes solid in comparison with the incumbent’s simply over 24 per cent. The capital Lilongwe is abandoned as hundreds of thousands of nationals observe vote depend proceedings through radio and TV from their properties.
For the previous one week, Malawians and election observers internationally have been anxiously awaiting the ultimate end result because the election was held eight days in the past. The polls physique stated it has taken its time to make sure the outcomes are correct. Because the polls have been carried out final week, Chakwera’s occasion has been piling complaints of “severe anomalies.
Chakwera blamed for inaction on corruption, runaway inflation
Since 2020 when Chakwera was elected on the promise of financial turnaround, the southern African nation continues to wallow in progress stagnation. Official statistics present that the costs of fundamental items and providers have continued to extend, with inflation at a excessive of 33 per cent. At present, the prices of meals, maize and fertiliser is out of attain for hundreds of thousands of individuals within the impoverished nation the place three out of 4 Malawians reside beneath the $3 a day poverty line.
Whereas the incumbent Chakwera rode to energy with a powerful promise to combat corruption within the nation, critics accuse him of selcetive justice, typically turning too sluggish in motion on perceived corrupt people and practices.
Within the marketing campaign interval, Chakera’s rival, Prof. Mutharika was lauded for infrastruture investments in addition to measures to test the rise in price of products and providers throughout his time period in workplace between 2014 and 2020.
Simply earlier than Covid-19 pandemic struck in 2019, Mutharika’s election in that yr was annulled by the courts resulting from irresgularities similar to the usage of correction fluid on election report sheets. Within the ensuing runoff, Mutharika, 85, misplaced to Chakwera.
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Chakwera joins listing of incumbent presidents defeated in elections
From Blaise Compaoré’s ouster in Burkina Faso in 2014 to the 2024 wave of upsets in Senegal, Ghana, and Botswana, Malawi’s Chakwera joins incumbent presidents in Africa who’ve been swept out of energy in a troublesome period characterised by youth-led revolt and financial discontent amongst populations.
The early 2010s marked the start of this development with high-profile defeats that uncovered the vulnerabilities of Africa’s sturdy males. In Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaoré, who had held energy since 1987, confronted a failed referendum in 2014 to increase his time period, sparking nationwide protests that compelled his resignation and exile.
Equally, Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan conceded defeat to Muhammadu Buhari in 2015, a historic peaceable handover in Africa’s most populous nation, amid widespread frustration over corruption and insecurity. These occasions, pushed by opposition coalitions and civil society, set a precedent for difficult entrenched energy, although Compaoré’s case escalated right into a coup.
The momentum continued into the mid-2010s and surged in recent times, with incumbents like Gambia’s Yahya Jammeh dropping to Adama Barrow in 2016 after 22 years in workplace, solely to refuse concession till ECOWAS navy intervention ousted him.
Liberia’s George Weah fell to Joseph Boakai in 2023, amid financial woes, whereas 2024 noticed a exceptional wave: Senegal’s Macky Sall’s proxy was defeated by Bassirou Diomaye Faye, Ghana’s Mahamudu Bawumia misplaced to John Dramani Mahama, Botswana’s Mokgweetsi Masisi was ousted by Duma Boko.
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