Photo: L. Masina for VOA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Politics
Bakili Muluzi
President of Malawi, 1994 to 2004
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- Former President of Malawi 24 May 1994 to 24 May 2004
Bakili Muluzi was the second President of Malawi, from 24 May 1994 to 24 May 2004. His Vice President was Justin Malewezi.
Elson Bakili Muluzi was born on 17 March 1943. He served as a minister in Hastings Banda’s government and was secretary general of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) before leaving that government. He went on to lead the United Democratic Front (UDF).
He won the first multiparty election in May 1994 with 47% of the vote, ending Banda’s rule, and was re-elected in 1999 with 52.4%. In 2002 he tried to change the Constitution to run for a third term but dropped the plan after protests and opposition in Parliament and the courts, and stepped down at the two-term limit.
His presidency was marked by the sale of the national maize reserve shortly before a drought and famine. He chose Bingu wa Mutharika as his successor, but the two fell out and Mutharika left the UDF to form the DPP in 2005. In 2009 Muluzi was charged with diverting about K1.7 billion of donor money into his own account.
