Dr
Bingu wa Mutharika (born February 24, 1934) is a
MalawiThe Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast and Mozambique, which surrounds it on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by...
economist, politician, and the current President of Malawi. He first took office on May 24, 2004, after winning a disputed
presidential electionA presidential and legislative election was held in Malawi on May 20, 2004. The election was scheduled for May 18 but was delayed for two days, postponed in response to opposition complaints of irregularities in the voters' roll....
. With the support of President
Bakili MuluziElson Bakili Muluzi is a Malawian politician. He was the President of Malawi from 1994 to 2004 and is currently the Chairman of the United Democratic Front .-Presidency:...
, Mutharika won the 2004 election as the candidate of the
United Democratic FrontThe United Democratic Front claims to be a liberal party in Malawi and is mainly strong in the southern region populated by ethnic Yao. The party is a member of Liberal International, which it joined at the latter's Reykjavík Congress in 1994...
(UDF); he broke with the UDF (which remained under Muluzi's control) in February 2005, however, due to disagreements over Mutharika's anti-corruption campaign.
Dr
Bingu wa Mutharika (born February 24, 1934) is a
MalawiThe Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast and Mozambique, which surrounds it on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by...
economist, politician, and the current President of Malawi. He first took office on May 24, 2004, after winning a disputed
presidential electionA presidential and legislative election was held in Malawi on May 20, 2004. The election was scheduled for May 18 but was delayed for two days, postponed in response to opposition complaints of irregularities in the voters' roll....
. With the support of President
Bakili MuluziElson Bakili Muluzi is a Malawian politician. He was the President of Malawi from 1994 to 2004 and is currently the Chairman of the United Democratic Front .-Presidency:...
, Mutharika won the 2004 election as the candidate of the
United Democratic FrontThe United Democratic Front claims to be a liberal party in Malawi and is mainly strong in the southern region populated by ethnic Yao. The party is a member of Liberal International, which it joined at the latter's Reykjavík Congress in 1994...
(UDF); he broke with the UDF (which remained under Muluzi's control) in February 2005, however, due to disagreements over Mutharika's anti-corruption campaign. He then formed a new party, the
Democratic Progressive PartyThe Democratic Progressive Party is the ruling political party in Malawi. The party was formed in February 2005 by Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika after a dispute with the United Democratic Front....
(DPP), but lacked a parliamentary majority for the rest of his first term. He won a second term in the
May 2009 electionA general election was held in Malawi on 19 May 2009. President Bingu wa Mutharika ran for re-election; his main opponent was John Tembo, the President of the Malawi Congress Party . Five other candidates also ran. The election was won by Mutharika, who was re-elected to the Presidency with around...
. His supporters credit him with responsible policies that have encouraged economic growth.
Biography
Born
Brightson Webster Ryson Thom in
ThyoloThyolo is a town located in the Southern Region of Malawi. It is the administrative capital of Thyolo District. The current President of Malawi, Bingu wa Mutharika, was born in Thyolo.-Demographics:...
, about 30km from Malawi's commercial capital,
BlantyreBlantyre is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce and its largest city, by population, with an estimated 732,518 inhabitants . It sometimes referred to as the commercial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, Lilongwe...
, he reverted to the family name of Mutharika and adopted the first name of Bingu during the 1960s when
pan-AfricanismPan-Africanism is a sociopolitical world view, philosophy, and movement which seeks to unify native Africans and members of the African diaspora into a "global African community"...
was sweeping across the continent.
He later added the prefix 'wa' between his names to disguise his identity from Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda's state security, even though he was not a political opponent of Dr. Banda.
Mutharika was the son of a primary school headmaster. He was educated at the
University of DelhiThe University of Delhi ' is a central university situated in Delhi, India and is funded by Government of India. Established in 1922, it offers courses at the undergraduate and post-graduate level...
,
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
, where he gained a master's degree in economics. He later obtained a PhD in development economics from Pacific Western University, an institution criticized on multiple occasions as a substandard educational institution or 'diploma mill', in
Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles is the largest city in the state of California and the second largest in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, Los Angeles has an estimated population of 3.8 million and spans over in Southern California...
.
After serving in the Malawi civil service and also for a period in the government of
ZambiaThe Republic of Zambia is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west. The capital city is...
, Mutharika joined the
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
in 1978, where he eventually became Director for Trade and Development Finance for Africa. In 1991 he was appointed as Secretary-General of the
Common Market for Eastern and Southern AfricaThe Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, is a preferential trading area with nineteen member states stretching from Libya to Zimbabwe. COMESA formed in December 1994, replacing a Preferential Trade Area which had existed since 1981...
(COMESA), a regional body of 20 countries.
After Banda was forced to liberalise his regime, Mutharika says that he was one of the founders of the
United Democratic FrontThe United Democratic Front claims to be a liberal party in Malawi and is mainly strong in the southern region populated by ethnic Yao. The party is a member of Liberal International, which it joined at the latter's Reykjavík Congress in 1994...
, the party that won Malawi's first multi-party elections in 1994.
Mutharika was at that time a supporter of the UDF leader, President
Bakili MuluziElson Bakili Muluzi is a Malawian politician. He was the President of Malawi from 1994 to 2004 and is currently the Chairman of the United Democratic Front .-Presidency:...
, but he soon became a critic of Muluzi's economic policies and left the UDF. He formed the United Party (UP) in 1997 and unsuccessfully opposed Muluzi in the 1999 presidential elections, taking less than 1% of the vote.
Mutharika dissolved the UP and rejoined the UDF after being offered the deputy governorship at
Reserve Bank of MalawiThe Reserve Bank of Malawi is the central bank of Malawi.-See also:*Central banks and currencies of Africa*Economy of Malawi*List of central banks...
. He was appointed Minister of Economic Planning and Development in 2002, and was then nominated by Muluzi as his successor. Wa Mutharika won about 36% of the vote in the presidential election of May 20, 2004, ahead of
John TemboJohn Zenus Ungapake Tembo is a Malawian politician and the President of the Malawi Congress Party , the strongest opposition party in Malawi. Tembo comes from the Dedza District in central Malawi, and he is a teacher by profession...
and
Gwanda ChakuambaGwandaguluwe "Gwanda" Chakuamba Phiri is a prominent Malawian politician who is currently the leader of the New Republican Party . He is from the lower Shire Valley area in southern Malawi....
, and took office a few days later.
After taking office, Mutharika came into conflict with Muluzi, the Chairman of the UDF, over Mutharika's campaign against corruption. The dispute between them was an important feature of wa Mutharika's first term in office, and this political conflict was said to interfere with the country's governance. On February 5, 2005, wa Mutharika announced his resignation from the UDF, saying that he had no support in the party because of his stand against corruption. There had previously been talk of expelling him from the party, and there had also been an alleged assassination plot against him by party members in early January 2005. Those accused were later pardoned by Mutharika, but he maintained the existence of the plot. After leaving the UDF, wa Mutharika formed his own party, the
Democratic Progressive PartyThe Democratic Progressive Party is the ruling political party in Malawi. The party was formed in February 2005 by Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika after a dispute with the United Democratic Front....
(DPP). In April 2005, Muluzi apologized to the country for choosing wa Mutharika as his successor "and imposing him on the country".
Gwanda Chakuamba, who had been appointed as Minister of Agriculture, was dismissed from the cabinet and subsequently arrested in September 2005 for making a speech predicting that wa Mutharika would be out of office by Christmas. In 2006, Vice-President
Cassim ChilumphaDr. Cassim Chilumpha is a Malawian politician who was Vice-President of Malawi from June 2004 to May 2009. He is currently a Member of Parliament in the National Assembly....
was arrested; he was accused of plotting wa Mutharika's assassination.
It was reported in March 2005 that wa Mutharika was not sleeping in the state mansion because of suspicions that it was home to evil spirits. A presidential aide was quoted as saying that Christian clergy had been asked to exorcise the spirits. This was subsequently denied, and journalists responsible for the story, including a
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation, usually referred to by its abbreviation as the "BBC", is the longest established and largest broadcaster in the world...
reporter, were arrested. Wa Mutharika said that "I have not met any ghosts yet, I have never in my life been afraid of them".
Wa Mutharika has upheld the memory of Hastings Banda as a national hero, saying that he would continue Banda's work. In September 2004, he restored Banda's name to the national stadium, the central hospital, and the
international airportLilongwe International Airport is an airport in Lilongwe, Malawi .-Airlines and destinations:...
; Muluzi had removed Banda's name from all three places. Wa Mutharika was present at the May 2006 unveiling of a mausoleum for Banda that cost US$620,000.
On October 7, 2006, wa Mutharika stated his intention to seek re-election in the 2009 presidential election as the DPP candidate. Two years later, in October 2008, the DPP's national governing council unanimously chose wa Mutharika as the party's candidate for the 2009 election.
While serving as President, wa Mutharika also holds the portfolio of agriculture and food security in the Cabinet, and in a Cabinet reshuffle on May 10, 2007, he additionally took over the education portfolio.
Wa Mutharika's wife, Ethel, with whom he had four children, died on May 28, 2007 after a long battle with cancer, during which she sought treatment in France and South Africa. A month of mourning was declared for her. Wa Mutharika's brother,
Peter Mutharika, holds a doctorate from
YaleYale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Yale has produced many notable alumni, including five...
and is a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis.
Bingu is popularly known as CHITSULO CHA NJANJI (steel railway track) among his supporters and the entire Malawi nation.
2009 election
Mutharika stood as a candidate for the presidency again for the 19 May 2009 elections. He was the nominee for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Due to his success in improving Malawi's economy during his previous presidential term he was a popular candidate even in the regions outside of the traditional northern "Home of the DPP". A study conducted by African based research project
AfrobarometerThe Afrobarometer is a research project that measures public attitudes on economic, political, and social matters in sub-Saharan Africa.It is carried out through a partnership of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa , the Ghana Center for Democratic Development , and the Department of...
projected that Bingu Wa Mutharika would win the presidential race with a 60% share of the vote.
Official election results show Mutharika won the presidential election with 2.7 million votes against 1.2 million for the main opposition candidate,
Malawi Congress PartyThe Malawi Congress Party is a political party in Malawi. It was originally known as the Nyasaland African Congress, but became the MCP under Hastings Banda, its first president....
President John Tembo, who was backed by Muluzi. Mutharika was inaugurated for a second term as President on 22 May.