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), 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.
