LILONGWE (Reuters) -Malawi’s former president Peter Mutharika is projected to have won last week’s presidential election with more than 56% of the vote, private broadcaster Times Television reported on Tuesday on its final unofficial results dashboard.

Official results released by the electoral commission late on Monday showed Mutharika had built a commanding lead over incumbent Lazarus Chakwera in the September 16 election.

A candidate needs to secure more than 50% of valid votes for an outright win, otherwise there will be a second round of voting.

Political analysts had predicted that Mutharika, 85, who was in power between 2014 and 2020, would mount a strong challenge to Chakwera’s re-election bid, as the economy has worsened since the last election.

(Reporting by Frank Phiri;Writing by Alexander Winning;Editing by Bate Felix)