Thousands of Malawians turned out to vote in general elections Tuesday with the incumbent president and his predecessor vying for a second chance to govern the southern African nation.
Long queues formed at outdoor polling stations across the nation for a vote focused on the economy.
In a mid-morning statement, the election authority said turnout appeared strong and the vote was generally running smoothly.
The election is also for seats in parliament and local wards. Polling stations close at 4:00 pm (1400 GMT) and ballot counting starts immediately, with the results expected as early as Thursday.
Seventeen presidential candidates
With a winner of the presidential ballot requiring more than 50 percent of votes, a run-off within 60 days is likely.
Seventeen candidates are running for president but observers say the race is between outgoing Lazarus Chakwera and Peter Mutharika, who also duelled in the 2019 vote that was nullified over tampering and followed by a rerun in 2020.
Chakwera, a 70-year-old pastor, and law professor Mutharika, 85, have campaigned on improving the agriculture-dependent economy that has been hit by drought and cyclones.
Inflation is running at above 27 percent, while the costs of living have surged and there is a shortage of fuel and forex.
Young voters
Around 70 percent of the majority young population of 21 million people live in poverty, according to the World Bank.
Chakwera, from the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) that led the nation to independence from Britain in 1964, pleaded in his campaign for continuity to "finish what we started", flaunting several infrastructure projects.
"There have been complaints about the cost of living, the lack of resources, food scarcity," he told a rally on Saturday in Lilongwe, a MCP support base. "We will fix things," he said.
"I want to rescue this country," Mutharika told a cheering weekend rally of his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the second city of Blantyre, the heartland of the party that has promised a "return to proven leadership" and economic reform.
