General elections were held in

Malawi Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast, and Mozambique to the east, south, and southwest. Malawi spans over and ...

on 20 May 2014. They were Malawi's first tripartite elections, the first time the president, National Assembly and local councillors were elected on the same day.Malawi Election Commission News
", 2009 The presidential election was won by opposition candidate

Peter Mutharika Arthur Peter Mutharika (born 18 July 1940) is a Malawi, Malawian politician and lawyer who was President of Malawi from May 2014 to June 2020. Mutharika has worked in the field of international justice, specialising in international economic la ...

of the

Democratic Progressive Party The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is a centre to centre-left Taiwanese nationalist political party in Taiwan. As the dominant party in the Pan-Green Coalition, one of the two main political camps in Taiwan, the DPP is currently the ...

, who defeated incumbent President

Joyce Banda Joyce Hilda Banda (née Ntila; born 12 April 1950) is a Malawi, Malawian politician, who served as List of heads of state of Malawi, President of Malawi, from 7 April 2012 to 31 May 2014. Banda took office as President following the sudden deat ...

Background

Malawi's CPI increased by 27.7% in 2013, but its

GDP Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the total market value of all the final goods and services produced and rendered in a specific time period by a country or countries. GDP is often used to measure the economic performance o ...

grew by only 5%. Malawi has maintained a polity score of 6 since 2005, designating it as a

democracy Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...

. Malawi's previous presidential election in 2009 was only the fourth such election in the country's history following the end of

Hastings Banda Hastings Kamuzu Banda ( – 25 November 1997) was a Malawian politician and statesman who served as the leader of Malawi from 1964 to 1994. He served as Prime Minister of Malawi, Prime Minister from independence in 1964 to 1966, when Malawi was ...

's period of one-man rule in 1994.

Bingu wa Mutharika Bingu wa Mutharika (; born Brightson Webster Ryson Thom; 24 February 1934 – 5 April 2012) was a Malawian politician and economist who was President of Malawi from May 2004 until his death in April 2012. He was also President of the Democ ...

, who had won the

2004 election The following elections occurred in the year 2004. Africa * 2004 Algerian presidential election * 2004 Botswana general election * 2004 Cameroonian presidential election * 2004 Comorian legislative election * 2004 Equatorial Guinean legislativ ...

, picked his foreign minister

to be vice president after successfully contesting the 2009 election. She was expelled from the

and formed the People's Party when she refused to endorse President Bingu wa Mutharika's younger brother

for president in the 2014 general election.Madonna attacks Malawi's president after attempt to nullify elections
''The Guardian'' Bingu wa Mutharika died of a heart attack on 5 April 2012, and Joyce Banda took the presidency two days later, in accordance with the constitution, despite protests from some ruling party officials that Banda's expulsion from the ruling party made her ineligible. The People's Party entered the election with a sitting president, but little in the way of a grass-roots machine.

Presidential candidates

Twelve candidates were allowed to contest in the election by the Malawi Electoral Commission:

Opinion polls

The Malawi Electoral Commission cautions that opinion pollsters in Malawi often have questionable credentials and publish biased reports. Some opinion polls have been criticised for lacking credibility and using non-scientific methods.

Results

Amid a breakdown in electronic systems for relaying results back to IEC headquarters, Banda claimed fraud and attempted to cancel the election after only one third of the votes were counted, and

, brother of the president who died in 2012, was well ahead. Banda said another vote should be held within 90 days, and she said she would not be standing, but opposition parties and the

Malawi Law Society Malawi Law Society is a legal membership organization that unites all lawyers in Malawi. It is administered by an elected executive board. Malawi Legal Information Institute (MLII) The Malawi Legal Information Institute is a division of the MLS.

objected. Court action ensued, but the IEC said the first count would be completed, and a recount started. The result would only be announced after the recount, estimated to take two months. On 30 May 2014, the High Court ruled that any recount must be done within eight days of the vote; since the allowed period had already ended, the court ruled that the electoral commission should announce the results. Accordingly, the electoral commission declared later in the day that Mutharika had won the presidential election with 36.4% of the vote. Another opposition candidate,

Lazarus Chakwera Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera (born 5 April 1955) is a Malawian politician and theologian who has served as President of Malawi since June 2020. He has served as the leader of the Malawi Congress Party since 2013. He was president of the Malawi Asse ...

of the MCP, received 27.8%, while Banda trailed in third place with 20.2%. The head of the commission, Maxon Mbendera, said that "the rule of law compels us to release the results", although he acknowledged that some of the commission's members had "reservations" about them. Banda quickly said that she accepted the outcome, although she continued to describe the vote as "fraudulent". Mutharika was sworn in as president on the morning of 31 May 2014. Banda congratulated Mutharika and called for national unity, urging the people to support the new president and wishing him success. An inauguration ceremony for Mutharika was held in

Blantyre Blantyre is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, and its second largest city, with a population of 800,264 . It is sometimes referred to as the commercial and industrial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, Lilongwe. It is ...

on 2 June 2014. Banda was not present at the inauguration, held at

Kamuzu Stadium The Kamuzu Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Blantyre, Malawi, Blantyre, Malawi. It is currently used mostly for association football, football matches. The stadium holds 65,000 people. This can be limited for safety reasons. Big Bullets and ...

, and her absence was viewed by some as a snub, given the history of bitter rivalry between the two. Mutharika said that he was offering an

olive branch The olive branch, a ramus of '' Olea europaea'', is a symbol of peace. It is generally associated with the customs of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, and is connected with supplication to divine beings and persons in power. Likewise, it is f ...

and wanted to "bury the past", expressing "regret" at Banda's absence. He said that he was not interested in "vengeance", although he added that "those who have broken the law will face the full course of justice".Zawadi Chilunga
"Mutharika regrets JB's snub in power handover: Muluzi cheered"
, ''Nyasa Times'', 2 June 2014.

President

National Assembly

Local government

References

{{Malawian elections Presidential elections in Malawi Elections in Malawi 2014 in Malawi

May 2014 in Africa