1964 Nyasaland general election

1964 Nyasaland general election

← 1961 28 April 1964 1971 →
All 53 seats in the Legislative Council 27 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader Hastings Banda Michael Hill Blackwood Party MCP NCP Last election 22 seats 5 seats Seats won 50 3 Seat change 28 2
Prime Minister before election Hastings Banda MCP Elected Prime Minister Hastings Banda MCP

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General elections were due to be held for the Legislative Council in Nyasaland on 28 April 1964, and would have been the first in the country under universal suffrage. However, there were no opposition candidates to either the Malawi Congress Party in the general roll seats (the Nyasaland Asian Convention had dissolved itself and declared its support for the MCP),^[1] or the Nyasaland Constitutional Party in the special roll seats, resulting in all 53 candidates winning without votes being cast.

MCP leader Hastings Banda remained Prime Minister, leading the country to independence as Malawi on 6 July. Banda spent the next few years consolidating his power. By 1966 the MCP was the only legally permitted party and by 1971 Banda had made himself president for life. The MCP would remain the only legal party until 1993, eventually losing power in the first multiparty post-independence elections in 1994.