President of Malawi

President of the
Republic of Malawi
President of the; Republic of Malawi
Mtsogoleri wa Dziko la Malawi (in Chichewa)
	Presidential Standard
	Incumbent; Peter Mutharika; since 31 May 2014
	Executive branch of the Malawian Government
Style	His Excellency (formal)
Member of	Cabinet
Seat	Capital Hill, Lilongwe
Term length	Five years, renewable once consecutively
Constituting instrument	Constitution of Malawi
Formation	6 July 1966
First holder	Hastings Banda
Deputy	Vice President of Malawi
Salary	US$ 74,300 annually
Website	www.opc.gov.mw

The president of the Republic of Malawi is the head of state and head of government of Malawi. The president leads the executive branch of the Government of Malawi and is the commander-in-chief of the Malawian Defence Force.

Then current president, Peter Mutharika took the office on 31 May 2014.

Latest election

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Peter Mutharika	Democratic Progressive Party	1,940,709	38.57
	Lazarus Chakwera	Malawi Congress Party	1,781,740	35.41
	Saulos Chilima	United Transformation Movement	1,018,369	20.24
	Atupele Muluzi	United Democratic Front	235,164	4.67
	Peter Kuwani	Mbakuwaku Movement for Development	20,369	0.40
	John Eugenes Chisi	Umodzi Party	19,187	0.38
	Hadwick Kaliya	Independent	15,726	0.31
Invalid/blank votes			74,719	–
Total			5,105,983	100
Registered voters/turnout			6,859,570	74.44
Source: MEC

Previous presidents

On 6 July 1964, Nyasaland became independent from British rule and renamed itself Malawi, with Elizabeth II as Queen of Malawi. Under a new constitution in 1966, Malawi became a republic with prime minister Hastings Banda becoming its first president. Under the country's 1966, 1994 and 1995 constitutions, the president is executive head of state. The first president was elected by the National Assembly, but later presidents were elected in direct popular elections for a five-year term. In the event of a vacancy, the vice-president becomes president.

No.	Portrait	President (Birth–Death)	Elected	Term of office			Political party
No.	Portrait	President (Birth–Death)	Elected	Took office	Left office	Time in office	Political party
style="background: Template:Malawi Congress Party/meta/color;" \|1		Hastings Banda (1898–1997)^[2]		6 July 1966	24 May 1994	27 years, 319 days	Malawi Congress Party
style="background: Template:United Democratic Front (Malawi)/meta/color;" \|2	File:Muluzi.png	Bakili Muluzi (born 1943)	1994 1999	24 May 1994	24 May 2004	10 years, 3 days	United Democratic Front
style="background: Template:United Democratic Front (Malawi)/meta/color;" \|3		Bingu wa Mutharika (1934–2012)	2004	24 May 2004	5 April 2012 (died in office)	7 years, 316 days	United Democratic Front
style="background: Template:Democratic Progressive Party (Malawi)/meta/color;" \|		Bingu wa Mutharika (1934–2012)	2009	24 May 2004	5 April 2012 (died in office)	7 years, 316 days	Democratic Progressive Party^[3]
style="background: Template:People's Party (Malawi)/meta/color;" \|4		Joyce Banda (born 1950)	—	7 April 2012 (previously Vice President)	31 May 2014	2 years, 54 days	People's Party
style="background: Template:Democratic Progressive Party (Malawi)/meta/color;" \|5		Peter Mutharika (born 1940)	2014 2019	31 May 2014	Incumbent	9 years, 350 days	Democratic Progressive Party