Malawi President Peter Mutharika (File photo: CGTN)

BLANTYRE, Malawi, May 27 (Xinhua) -- Malawi's incumbent President Peter Mutharika was on Monday declared winner of presidential election after polling 38.57 percent of the votes, according to final official figures released by the electoral body.

The announcement of the final results followed the ruling by a court to throw away an injunction filed by the main opposition party, which had called for the suspension of announcement of results and for a vote recount.

Mutharika beat his closest rival, Lazarus Chakwera, the country's main opposition leader of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) who polled 35.41 percent of the votes while Vice-President Saulos Chilima was third with 20.24 percent of the votes, in a tightly contest election.

Mutharika, 78, has won his second and last term in office with a slight improvement from the 2014 elections when he got 36.4 percent of the votes.

Justice Jane Ansah, chairperson of the electoral body, who announced the results, said 5.1 million of the 6.8 million registered voters turned up to vote, representing 74.44 percent voter turnout.

She said the electoral body revealed all the complaints raised by various political parties and that the presidential election was free and fair and represented the true reflection of the will of Malawi.