Voters in Malawi went to the polls on Thursday to elect a new president and Parliament in the third multiparty elections since the end of dictatorial rule in the Southern African country, one of the poorest in the world.
Malawians will choose a successor to President Bakili Muluzi, who is reluctantly stepping down after two terms in office, leading the country since he defeated self-proclaimed president-for-life Kamuzu Banda in a 1994 poll.
Election officials said turnout was high in the early hours and free of violence although there were delays in opening voting stations in some areas after ballots were not sent to their proper destination.
“Early indication shows that there is a strong voter turnout,” chief elections officer Roosevelt Gondwe said six hours after voting started.
“Voting is progressing smoothly nationally with early reports of orderly and peaceful polling,” he said.
Heavy rains in the north prevented some stations from opening as scheduled at 6am local time and others were forced to delay voting by two hours after ballot papers were sent to the “wrong stations”, said Gondwe.
In the economic capital of Blantyre, Gondwe said voting started late at one station because “ballot box lids were not opening”, while in Nsanje, bordering Mozambique, “some people who were not registered wanted to vote”.
The opposition and human rights activists have raised concerns about whether the election will be free and fair following a last-minute ruling by the High Court ordering that voters’ lists be inspected and delaying the elections by two days.
A former British colony wedged between Mozambique and Zambia, Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world, with a per capita income of $210 and most people living on less than $1 a day.
It is also one of the hardest-hit by Aids, which has brought life expectancy down to 36 and ranks 163 out of 173 according to a development scale by the United Nations Development Programme.
Five candidates are running for the presidency with 72-year-old economist Bingu wa Mutharika of the governing United Democratic Front and opposition leader Gwanda Chakuamba (69) leading the pack.
“I’m very hopeful,” Mutharika told reporters at his home village of Goliati, about 60km east of Blantyre.
“Chances are good and the test of the pudding is in the eating,” he said after he cast his vote.
Thousands of voters, many of them barefoot, queued to cast their ballots in Goliati.
“I’m happy to vote, because Mutharika may bring development in the area. We need a hospital and a good road leading to Blantyre,” said Agnes Mulima, an elderly woman.
Elizabeth Bonongwe (25) hailed the poll as a “big day for me to choose an MP and a president of my choice”.
“This is the vote that should change my life. I will use it properly and vote for an MP who will deliver,” Esnat Thowa (70) said as she waited in the long queue. “We want development here, a good road here.”
Handpicked by Muluzi as his successor, Mutharika is seen as the odds-on favourite to win the presidency, mainly because the opposition has been unable to unite behind a single candidate.
Other than Chakuamba, his main opponent, who heads the seven-party Mgwirizano (Unity) Coalition, there is also John Tembo (72), from the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), the oldest political grouping that led Malawi to independence from Britain in 1964.
Brown Mpinganjira (55), a former senior minister and top aide to Muluzi, is also in the running for the National Democratic Alliance, as is 60-year-old Justin Malewezi, an independent candidate and former vice-president in the Muluzi administration.
Muluzi, who will be stepping down with the inauguration of the new president on Monday, has sought to put the country on a path toward democracy but he is seen as having failed to lift the country out of poverty.
Banda’s 28-year rule was among the most conservative on the continent, known for its crackdown on political dissidents and a string of quirky laws including a ban on trousers for women.
About 5,7-million voters are registered for the elections in the country of 11-million people.
A total of 1Â 254 candidates — 356 of them independents — are vying for seats in the 193-member Parliament.
Official results are to be announced on Saturday. — Sapa-AFP
Malawi: Slouching towards democracy