Four years ago, then-Malawian president Lazarus Chakwera flew 11,265km with a 10-member delegation to attend an online conference being chaired from London.
He said he had to be in the British capital, as his country’s erratic Internet connectivity made it impossible for him to participate virtually from his office. Chakwera’s delegation included his wife, daughter and son-in-law. The Malawian minister of foreign affairs was left at home, leading to allegations that he was on just another of his many expensive trips abroad.
In elections last month, Malawians, tired of rampant government corruption and a stagnating economy that prompted cost-of-living protests in February, voted him out.
Chakwera conceded defeat after 85-year-old former Malawian president Peter Mutharika won 56.8 percent of the vote compared with Chakwera’s 33 percent, official results showed.
He called Mutharika — a former professor of law who served as president from 2014 to 2020 — and congratulated him on his “historic win.”
He told him: “I want you to know that I am committed to a peaceful transfer of power.”
For democrats in Africa and elsewhere, it was a fairytale ending. Firstly, Malawians swiftly (after just one term), spiritedly (Chakwera was booed in the streets) and democratically voted out a leader who was clearly out of his depth. Secondly, the willingness to cede control peacefully is a welcome development, as other players in the region — particularly East African giants Tanzania and Kenya — have recently detained and harassed opposition players, and introduced anti-democratic measures to keep incumbents in office.
The developments in Malawi also continue a positive trend whereby voters in several key jurisdictions have tossed aside incumbents who have dominated the political field for decades. For example, Botswana’s Democratic Party lost November last year’s elections by a landslide after nearly 58 years in power. It handed the reins over peacefully to 55-year-old Umbrella for Democratic Change leader Duma Boko. In Senegal, after trying to cling to power despite a glittering democratic career, former Senegalan president Macky Sall conceded defeat in March last year and ceded power to 44-year-old Bassirou Diomaye Faye. Ghana’s worst economic crisis in years, involving high inflation and a debt default, propelled former Ghanian president John Dramani Mahama to victory over former Ghanian vice president Mahamudu Bawumia in December last year’s presidential elections. South Africa’s African National Congress in May last year lost its 30-year majority and has been governing in a fragile coalition with the opposition Democratic Alliance and eight smaller parties.
So, the days when elections were mere rituals to return incumbents to power are fading. That is good. What is less gratifying is that on a continent with a median age of 19 to 20 and a large proportion younger than 35, Malawians have chosen an octogenarian to lead them.
Depressingly, Mutharika’s 85 years would not make him an outlier at African Union meetings. In Cameroon, 92-year-old Paul Biya is running for an eighth term in elections scheduled for Oct. 12. Should he win (his main opponent has been barred from running on spurious grounds, so victory seems certain), he would be in office until he is nearly 100, having served as president for 50 years. Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo is a relatively young 82 and has been in power since 1979, when he overthrew and then executed his uncle. Republic of the Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso, 82 in November, has clung to power on and off for 40 years. Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara, 83, is running for another five-year term this month after 14 years in power (four prominent opposition figures — including former Credit Suisse bank CEO Tidjane Thiam, 63 — have been barred from running).
That condemns parts of Africa, which has the world’s youngest population (with 70 percent of sub-Saharan Africans under 30), to gerontocracies where leaders would not be around to experience the consequences of their actions. It is impossible to watch the jubilation around Mutharika’s win without recalling with sadness that young people, who should make the most meaningful impact in the country, led the cost-of-living protests that helped edge out Chakwera. Would their voices be heard and represented in decisionmaking, or would they, like the Gen Z protesters of Nepal, Kenya, Togo and many other gerontocracies that have blown up recently, be forced once again to take to the streets?
Malawi’s election is laudable for its openness, peacefulness and the decisiveness of its voters. However, the lack of younger leaders can only hold the country — and the continent — back.
Justice Malala is a political commentator and former editor of South Africa’s This Day. He is the author of The Plot to Save South Africa: The Week Mandela Averted Civil War and Forged a New Nation.
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