The Malawi 2004 presidential and parliamentary elections held on 20 May ushered in some new faces, the main one being the election of economist Bingu wa Mutharika as president, a considerable increase in women representation and the beginning of the end of voting along ethnic lines.

Mutharika’s political history is short and was not until recently given serious attention in local circles.

This changed when President Bakili Muluzi announced that he was paving the way for the former COMESA chief to take over as president after the 2004 elections – a situation that raised eyebrows, given the many established politicians and economists in the country.

President Muluzi drafted Mutharika into the central executive committee of his ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) as the presidential elections contender, ahead of the Vice President, Justin Malewezi.

Mutharika won over contenders John Tembo of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), Gwanda Chakuamba of the Mgwirizano Coalition of seven parties, Brown Mpinganjira of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and Malewezi who ran as independent.

According to the results acclaimed, Mutharika got 1,119,738 votes; Tembo 846,457; Chakuamba, 802,386; Mpinganjira 272,172 votes while Malewezi gleaned 78,892 votes.

Latest figures on the Malawi National Assembly reveal the following composition: MCP, 60 seats; UDF, 49 seats (against 91 of 1999). Independent candidates, a good number of whom are women, have collected 38 seats. Chakuamba’s six-months old Republican Party (RP) has 16 seats, while the Alliance for Democracy (Aford), the UDF partner, has managed only 6 seats against the 30 it had in the last election. Small parties, including the NDA, have shared the rest of the seats, in the 193-seat house.

The number of women in parliament almost doubled. In the last National Assembly, there were 17 female parliamentarians, representing 8.8 percent of the 193 chamber Parliament. Now there are 28 female MPs, representing 14 percent.