Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera is the incumbent President of the Republic of Malawi. He was sworn into office on 29th June 2020, following his victory at the polls with 59% of the vote.
Prior to becoming President of Malawi, Dr Chakwera served as President of the Malawi Assemblies of God for 26 years until 2013 when he resigned his post to enter frontline politics. At a Malawi Congress Party Convention held that year, Dr Chakwera beat a field of a dozen contenders to become the party’s President and presidential candidate in the 2014 General Elections. Although he was the runner up in those presidential polls, MCP won dozens of seats in Parliament, including one won by Dr Chakwera himself, making him Malawi’s Leader of Opposition from 2014 to 2019.
When Dr Chakwera ran for office again in 2019, he set up a vast network of election monitors that reported to him a plethora of irregularities, which formed the basis of his decision to file a petition at the Constitutional Court against the Electoral Commission’s official results. On 3rd February 2020, the seven-month court battle ended with the five judges of the Constitutional Court unanimously ruling to nullify the result of the 2019 presidential election and ordering a fresh poll to be held within 150 days. That Fresh Presidential Election was held on June 23, 2020, resulting in a resounding victory for Dr Chakwera to make him Malawi’s 6th President.
On the world stage, President Chakwera is also the current Chair of the 46-member grouping of Least Developed Countries (LDCs), which collaborate on a common approach for engaging development partners in the pursuit of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He is also the incoming Chair of the 16-member Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), with a keen interest on advancing the regional integration agenda. President Chakwera is married to Madame Monica, the First Lady of the Republic of Malawi.
