Malawi - history

In 1964, after seventy-three years of British rule, Malawi became an independent nation. The prime minister at the time, Hastings Kamuzu Banda, was elected president for life in 1971 and instituted authoritarian one-party rule.

His control lasted until 1994, when he was defeated by Mr. Bakili Muluzi in Malawi’s first multiparty elections. Mr. Muluzi and his United Democratic Front (UDF) party were re-elected in the country's second multiparty elections in June 1999.

Bingu wa Mutharika, running for UDF Party, succeeded Mr. Muluzi in May 2004 as the President of Malawi. Despite winning only 49 of the 193 parliamentary seats at the legislative election on May 20th, 2004, the United Democratic Front (UDF), has already secured a parliamentary majority by attracting some of the opposition parties into government. Most of the remaining opposition parties — led by the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), which won the largest number of seats in the election (59) — have agreed to form an informal alliance in parliament with the People’s Progressive Movement (PPM), led by Hon. Aleke Banda.

Although the government of Malawi has initiated an economic reform agenda, it faces challenges on several fronts: a rapidly growing population, a high HIV/AIDS infection rate (about 15 percent), limited natural resources, high levels of inequality caused by years of an elitist development strategy, and the corrosive effects of recurring droughts, poor resource management, and environmental degradation.

Source : World Bank