Voters await results in presidential poll dominated by economic woes

Malawi awaits the knowledge of who will be their next president with the closing of the ballot boxes in most parts of the country and began to count.

Thousands of people in a queue at the polling stations on Tuesday to vote for a president, deputies and local advisers, hoping to make change in a country steeped due to economic problems. Some still vote in the areas where the poll began late.

In his campaign for a second, the current president, Lazaros Chakuera, pledged to reform the Malawi economy – as his main rival, former Octogen leader Peter Mrattika.

If no candidate wins more than half of the votes, the competitors will go on the flow.

“There is anger in us. I want to change this government. I want young people to be in good jobs,” Itah Niasulu, a 28 -year -old waitress, told Agence France -Presse before they headed.

Malawi has always been one of the poorest countries in the world, but recently it was a special punishment.

Food costs increased by more than 30 % last year and did not keep pace.

The partially high inflation rate has been placed to a lack of foreign currency – known as “Forex” – in banks.

“There are many cases, especially with regard to Forex and unemployment,” Rachel Chagosa, a 26 -year -old graduate who sells flowers, told AFP after the vote.

“We must check what is happening and change things for the better.”

The southern African state was also paralyzed due to the power outages in the country and fuel shortage. When people lined up to vote on Tuesday, frustrated car drivers continued to form long fuel -fuel queues outside gasoline stations.

President Chakwera, who promised to address this deficiency, stood in a row to vote with the local population of his mother village, Malembo, which is located about 56 km (35 miles) northeast of the capital Lilongwe.

Several police officers and military guards have seen the 70 -year -old and his wife, as the voters gathered in the hope of a peek at their president.

The elections are actually a two -horse racing between Chakuerra and the man who won it in 2020, 85 years old.

However, there are 15 other candidates, including another former president, and the country’s only head of state, Joyce Panda.

Two hours before the polls were closed, the head of the Malawi Electoral Committee, Annabel Mileymana, said that 3.7 million people – half of those who registered to vote – made the polling.

A woman outside the polling station at the Malimbo Elementary School told the BBC that she was very eager to vote, and she was overlooked overnight.

Another voter, Mercy Nedson Chimbewa, said: “We voted because of the freedom we have here. In other countries, the people are not available to have the opportunity to exercise the right to vote.”

For the largest part, voting is smoothly, which total more than 15,000.

However, Reuters news agency reported a delay in some stations due to problems in reading biometric fingerprint readers.

The electoral committee admitted that the “waiting list challenges” in “one or two centers”, but said that these issues are being managed.

Rulings of the voters who were unable to write – have put a mark on their polling paper fingerprint, while others used a pen to choose their chosen candidate.

Before the opening of opinion polls, McAlimanja mentioned the influential social media of the lack of live broadcasting or documenting themselves, as millions are prevented from taking pictures of their ballot papers.

The votes began to count as soon as opinion polls were closed at 14:00 GMT.

The Malawi Electoral Commission increased until the end of September 24 to announce the presidential result in a Tuesday and the end of September 30 for the parliamentary elections.