| Politics of Malawi | ||
| Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda served as Prime Minister at independence in 1964. Malawi became a Republic in 1966, Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda became the First President. He later instituted one-party rule under his Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and was declared president for life. After three decades of one-party rule, the country held multiparty Presidential and Parliamentary Elections in 1994 under a provisional constitution that came into full effect in 1995. Dr. Bakili Muluzi of the United Democratic Front (UDF) party became the first democratically elected President of Malawi when he defeated Dr. Banda at the polls in 1994 and was re-elected in 1999. President Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika was elected in 2004 and subsequently started his own party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), in 2005. Dr. Mutharika A was re-elected to a second term in 2009, but could not complete his second term following his sudden death in 2012. He was succeeded by Vice President Dr. Joyce Banda, who had earlier started her own party, the People's Party (PP). Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika, brother to Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika defeated Dr. Joyce Banda in 2014. Professor Mutharika was re-elected in a disputed election in 2019 that resulted in the courts ordering a new election in 2020 where Dr. Lazarus Chakwera of the Malawi Congress Party was elected as Malawi’s sixth (6th) President under a coalition of nine (9) parties called Tonse Alliance. | ||
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EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF MALAWI IN DOHA, STATE OF QATAR |
Email: doha.malawimission@foreignaffairs.gov.mw | Tel: +974 4441 5419 |
