President Lazarus Chakwera of Malawi conceded the election on Wednesday, clearing the way for the return to power by Peter Mutharika, the rival whom he unseated five years ago in a vote that had to be rerun because of widespread irregularities.
While Malawi’’s electoral commission has not announced the final results of last week’s vote, Mr. Chakwera said that Mr. Mutharika had “secured an insurmountable lead” based on the partial tallies that have been released.
“It is only right that I concede defeat out of respect for your will as citizens and out of respect for the constitution,” Mr. Chakwera said in a televised address to the nation. He called on election officials to conduct a full review of reports of irregularities at the polls, but said he was “fully committed to facilitate a peaceful transfer of power.”
Mr. Chakwera’s concession all but guarantees that there will not be a repeat of the tumult after the 2019 election, when Mr. Mutharika was announced as the winner but Malawi’s top court ruled that the election needed to be rerun because of widespread irregularities — the first time it had taken such a step. In the rerun the following year, Mr. Mutharika lost to Mr. Chakwera in what was hailed as a democratic breakthrough on a continent where leaders often cling to power through fraud and violence.
After the vote last week, Mr. Chakwera and his party went to court to try to prevent the country’s electoral commission from announcing results before allegations of irregularities were resolved. But the court ruled that the release of the results could proceed.
On Wednesday, Mr. Chakwera, 70, said he accepted the court’s ruling and that the anomalies in the election would not necessarily alter the final outcome in favor of Mr. Mutharika.
The first term of Mr. Mutharika, an 85-year-old Yale-educated former law professor, was marred by allegations of corruption. Analysts say that voters backed him this year largely because Mr. Chakwera had failed to stabilize an ailing economy that has left many Malawians struggling to afford basic goods.
John Eligon is the Johannesburg bureau chief for The Times, covering a wide range of events and trends that influence and shape the lives of ordinary people across southern Africa.
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