Malawi Makes History: the Opposition Wins Presidential Election Rerun
CODESRIA Bulletin Online, No. 4, July 2020 Page 1 Online Article Malawi Makes History: The Opposition Wins Presidential Election Rerun This piece first appeared on the author’s linked-in page June( 28, 2020) a n d has been republished here with his permission n Saturday, June 27, 2020 In the struggles for democratiza- Malawi became the first Paul Tiyambe Zeleza tion, for the “second independ- Ocountry in Africa where a Vice Chancellor ence” in the 1980s and early 1990s, presidential election rerun was won United States International Malawi’s political culture was by the opposition. On February 3, University, Kenya buoyed by the emergence of strong 2020 Malawi became the second social movements. These move- country on the continent where the ments coalesced most prominently Constitutional Court nullified the power since 2004, save for a brief around the Public Affairs Commit- presidential election of May 21, interlude. The two-year interval was tee and the Human Rights Defend- 2019 because of widespread, sys- the presidency of Joyce Banda fol- ers Coalition. Formed in 1992 as a tematic, and grave irregularities lowing the death of Bingu wa Muth- pressure group of religious com- and anomalies that compromised arika in April 2012 and the election munities and other forces, PAC the right to vote and the democratic of Peter Mutharika, the late Bingu’s became a highly respected and in- choice of citizens. The first country brother, in May 2014. fluential political actor. While PAC was Kenya where the presidential functioned as a civil interlocutor election of August 8, 2017 was an- This reflects, secondly, Malawi’s for democracy, the HRDC flexed nulled by the Supreme Court on political culture of collective na- its political muscles in organizing September 1, 2017.
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