Malawi's main opposition endorses ex-president Mutharika to run in 2025

BLANTYRE (Reuters) - Malawi's main opposition party, the Democratic Progress Party endorsed on Sunday former President Peter Mutharika to be its candidate in next year's presidential election. 

Mutharika, 84, who was president from 2014 to 2020, said in his acceptance speech he and his party would fix the economy, whose growth has been anaemic and plagued by foreign currency shortages that led to lack of fuel and medicines.

He will face President Lazarus Chakwera of the Malawi Congress Party, who will be seeking a second term at the election scheduled for Sept. 16, 2025.

"We come from a background of winning from the opposition. We will do the same next year. We are coming to fix the economy," Mutharika told his party's national convention in the commercial capital Blantyre.

Mutharika, a former law professor, oversaw infrastructure improvements and a slowdown in inflation during his tenure, but critics accused him of corruption and cronyism, which he denies.

Chakwera, 69, came to power pledging to crack down on corruption and to accelerate economic growth, but his opponents say he has not delivered as the southern African nation's economy remains fragile.

Mutharika said he would form an opposition alliance including the United Transformation Movement, the party founded by the late Vice President Saulos Chilima who died in a plane crash in June.

The UTM party helped Chakwera defeat Mutharika in 2020, but after the vice president's death it announced its intention to pull out of the ruling alliance. 

UTM has not yet confirmed an alliance with Mutharika's party, which would dramatically reshape the race. A UTM spokesperson did not reply to a request for comment. 

(This story has been refiled to add dropped word 'commercial' in reference to Blantyre in paragraph 4)

(Reporting by Frank Phiri; Editing by Nellie Peyton and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)