Former president Lazarus Chakwera has vowed to continue leading the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and to steer it back into power in 2030.

Addressing his first press briefing in Lilongwe on Monday since losing the 16 September election, Chakwera said he intends to channel the pain of defeat into renewed strength for the party.

“The pain we are going through as a party is a test from God, and we will use it to conduct a postmortem of the reasons that made Malawians vote the way they did. As long as I am your president, I will make sure we get back into government,” he said.

His remarks come amid growing calls for a leadership overhaul within the MCP. However, Chakwera’s statement made it clear that he has no intention of relinquishing the party presidency anytime soon.

He urged MCP supporters to unite and work together to rebuild the party, warning that internal divisions would only weaken its prospects.

“Before we can rebuild our party’s trust with the people of Malawi, we must rebuild trust among ourselves within the party.

“The process will take much longer and be much harder if we do not encourage one another to resist the temptation to tear each other apart,” he said

Chakwera also expressed gratitude to Malawians, and MCP supporters in particular, for maintaining peace throughout the transition of power.

“I want to thank you all for your gracious response to my appeal that we maintain peace after the Malawi Electoral Commission announced the results,” he said.

He was accompanied at the briefing by several senior party officials, including Secretary General Richard Chimwendo-Banda, Publicity Secretary Jessie Kabwira, and National Governing Council (NGC) member Simplex Chithyola Banda, who also serves as Leader of Opposition in Parliament.

During the briefing, the former president also announced that he has been appointed by the Commonwealth to lead a peace-building mission to Tanzania following violent post-election protests.