Their victory reflects widespread frustration at Malawi's descent into dysfunction and economic chaos under President Lazarus Chakwera over the past five years whose Malawi Congress Party was seen as arrogant  corrupt and prone to ethnic favouritism (AC Vol 66 No 12  Chakwera in trouble as election looms)...
 Many Malawians watched in amusement as Mumba spoke at press conferences seen as increasingly desperate (AC Vol 66 No 18  Lazarus Chakwera fights to survive)...
	 
    
    
    
			
        
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	    President Lazarus Chakwera and his predecessor Peter Mutharika have been rebuked by the head of the Malawi Electoral Commission after both claimed they had won the 16 September elections...
 The results are likely to put the country on a knife-edge – opinion polls suggested that no candidate was likely to obtain the 50% plus one needed to avoid a second round run off (AC Vol 66 No 18  Lazarus Chakwera fights to survive)...
	 
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	    Malawians go to the polls on 16 September in an election that could make President Lazarus Chakwera the third one-term president in the past 11 years (AC Vol 66 No 12  Chakwera in trouble as election looms)...
	 
    
    
    
    
        
	
	    The breach between the International Monetary Fund and the government over the ending of the US$175 million Extended Credit Facility (ECF) halfway through its economic reform programme could work against President Lazarus Chakwera's chances of success in the general election in September...
	 
    
    
    
    
        
	
	     The officials named in the charges against Sattar and by the US State Department as recipients of the bribes include: Chilima  President Lazarus Chakwera's chief of staff Prince Harvey Kapondamgaga (still serving)  the Inspector-General of Police George Kainja  lawyer for the Malawi police Mwambi Kaluba  Chizuma's predecessor at the ACB Reyneck Matemba  public procurement boss John Suzi Banda  Dan Kuwali  head of legal at the Malawi Defence Force (still serving) and three others...
	 
    
    
    
    
        
	
	     President Lazarus Chakwera  who already has a strong reputation for nepotism throughout government  succeeded Tembo as chair of the ruling MCP  and made the electoral commission appointment  enraging the opposition and setting the scene for claims that he can win only by deploying money and fraud...
 The late Chilima's case was discontinued  while Kampondamgaga  President Lazarus Chakwera's right-hand man  was asked only to return a vehicle he had allegedly received from Sattar...
	 
    
    
    
    
        
	
	     The incumbent  President Lazarus Chakwera  who was elected in 2020 after the Constitutional Court nullified his predecessor Peter Mutharika's 2019 win  faces Mutharika again as well as former President Joyce Banda  who claims Mutharika won fraudulently against her in 2014 (AC Vol 61 No 3  Shock ruling resets poll)...
 Many suspect it is  in reality  designed to raise money for President Lazarus Chakwera's re-election campaign...
	 
    
    
    
    
        
	
	    Many of Vice-President Saulos Chilima's supporters have blamed President Lazarus Chakwera for the crash that claimed the lives of Chilima and eight others in a Malawi Defence Forces twin-engined Dornier 228 on 10 June (AC Vol 65 No 13  No plaudits for anti-corruption supremo)...
	 
    
    
    
			
        
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	     Mutharika will be 85 on polling day but is planning to run on his government's economic record and cash in on the unpopularity of his successor President Lazarus Chakwera...
	 
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	     President Lazarus Chakwera could well become collateral damage of that superstition  with 14 months to go to the general election...