The main opposition party in Malawi, the Democratic Progress Party (DPP), has officially backed former president Peter Mutharika, 84, as its candidate for the 2025 presidential election.
Mutharika, who served as president from 2014 to 2020, has outlined his commitment to addressing the country’s economic challenges, including slow growth and currency shortages.
He will challenge the incumbent President, Lazarus Chakwera, who is seeking a second term.
The former leader also aims to form an alliance with the United Transformation Movement, although the details of the partnership are yet to be confirmed.
In 2020, the incumbent president, Mutharika, was defeated in his bid for re-election by Lazarus Chakwera, who campaigned on an anti-corruption platform.
There was a re-run after the previous results from May 2019 were nullified by the country’s highest court due to irregularities, which initially declared Mutharika and his DPP as the winners.
In 2021, the former president claimed that the current government was targeting him for political reasons after Malawi’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) froze his family’s personal bank accounts as part of an investigation into their involvement in a 5-billion kwacha ($6.6 million) cement scandal.