Voters in Malawi go to polls to elect president, parliament

BLANTYRE, Malawi (AP) — Voting has started in in Malawi to elect a new president and 193 members of parliament.

Before dawn, hundreds of voters lined up Tuesday at polling centers to cast their ballots in the election in which 78-year-old President Peter Mutharika is seeking re-election to a second term.

Mutharika is in a tight race against his vice-president, 46-year-old Saulos Chilima, and the leader of the main opposition Malawi Congress Party, Lazarus Chakwera, 64.

Malawi's army and police will provide security at polling stations for the 6 million registered voters. </s> Voters in Malawi go to polls to elect president, parliament

BLANTYRE, Malawi (AP) — More than 6 million Malawians are voting Tuesday for president, parliament and local councils in the country's sixth election since the 1994 end of dictatorship.

Of a field of seven presidential candidates, incumbent 78-year-old President Peter Mutharika faces stiff competition from his vice-president, Saulos Chilima, 46, and from Lazarus Chakwera, 64, leader of the main opposition, the Malawi Congress Party.

Malawi's winning candidate must get the most votes cast but is not required to receive more than 50% of the votes.

Previous president Joyce Banda dropped out of the race and is supporting Chakwera.

Of the registered voters, 54% are young people between the ages of 18 and 34. Women make up 56% of the registered voters while all the presidential candidates are male.

Malawi's army and police will provide security at the more than 5,000 polling stations across the country and polls will remain open for 12 hours until 6 p.m. local time.

Most voters interviewed said they are pleased to cast their ballots in the hotly contested presidential poll.

"We are tired with all these months of bickering and I just want to vote and be done with it," said Martha Liunda, 66, in Blantyre.

William Phiri, 32, an inmate at Chichiri prison in Blantyre said he was excited to be able to vote for a candidate of his choice even though he is in jail.

"I have two years to serve and I am voting for a future that I will find upon my release," he said.

Malawi's voting system is secure and "cannot be penetrated by hackers," said electoral commission chairwoman Jane Ansa, speaking to the press Monday evening. No communications networks will be shut down during the elections, she said.

The presidential contest is very close between the top three contenders, said Boniface Dulani, a senior lecturer in political science at Chancellor College, University of Malawi.

As in previous elections, he says voting is likely to follow regional lines where Chakwere and the Malawi Congress Party will carry the central region, Chilima the north and Mutharika the south.

"The decider will most likely be who comes second in all the regions," he said. </s> President Peter Mutharika who is seeking a second term and is being challenged by his deputy, Saulos Chilima, the leader of biggest opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP), Lazarus Chakwer were locked in a neck and neck race Tuesday as exit polls showed no clear winner in an election that was branded watershed.

The nearly seven million registered voters went to the polls on Tuesday, casting their votes to elect a president, members of parliament and local government councillors.

Nyasa Times correspondents with help of Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) stringers, conducted an exit poll covering Lilongwe, Blantyre, Zomba, Mangochi, Mulanje, Chikwawa, Ntcheu, Kasungu, Mzuzu, Mzimba and Karonga.

Immediately after voters exited the polling stations, they shared why they preferred specific candidates.

Most voters considered development agenda, cost of living, education and unemployment while deciding on who to vote for.

Voters feel unemployment and corruption are key issues the President should address immediately after elections.

An election exit poll is one that is conducted immediately after voters have exited the polling stations with an objective of finding out how the respondents voted but more specifically, understand respondents demographics, voters experience at the polling centre, main reasons why they voted for a particular candidate and understand when they made a decision to vote for their favorite candidates.

President Mutharika is seen – in the Nyasa Times exit polls – to be way head of the Chakwera and Chilima and chances are he will most certainly be given a new mandate to govern.

However, the exit polls are notoriously imprecise, meaning the final results could still swing in either direction.

Malawi’s electoral commission (MEC) has since pledged to deliver a credible results with its chief, Dr. Jane Ansah asking the 6.9 million registered voters to trust that their will will be respected. </s> More than 6 million Malawians are voting Tuesday for president, parliament and local councils in the country's sixth election since the 1994 end of dictatorship.

Of a field of seven presidential candidates, incumbent 78-year-old President Peter Mutharika faces stiff competition from his vice-president, Saulos Chilima, 46, and from Lazarus Chakwera, 64, leader of the main opposition, the Malawi Congress Party.

Malawi's winning candidate must get the most votes cast but is not required to receive more than 50% of the votes.

Previous president Joyce Banda dropped out of the race and is supporting Chakwera.

Of the registered voters, 54% are young people between the ages of 18 and 34. Women make up 56% of the registered voters while all the presidential candidates are male.

Malawi's army and police will provide security at the more than 5,000 polling stations across the country and polls will remain open for 12 hours until 6 p.m. local time.

Most voters interviewed said they are pleased to cast their ballots in the hotly contested presidential poll.

"We are tired with all these months of bickering and I just want to vote and be done with it," said Martha Liunda, 66, in Blantyre.

William Phiri, 32, an inmate at Chichiri prison in Blantyre said he was excited to be able to vote for a candidate of his choice even though he is in jail.

"I have two years to serve and I am voting for a future that I will find upon my release," he said.

Malawi's voting system is secure and "cannot be penetrated by hackers," said electoral commission chairwoman Jane Ansa, speaking to the press Monday evening. No communications networks will be shut down during the elections, she said.

The presidential contest is very close between the top three contenders, said Boniface Dulani, a senior lecturer in political science at Chancellor College, University of Malawi.

As in previous elections, he says voting is likely to follow regional lines where Chakwere and the Malawi Congress Party will carry the central region, Chilima the north and Mutharika the south.

"The decider will most likely be who comes second in all the regions," he said. </s> Malawians are voting in 5,006 poling centres across the country to elect a president, Members of Parliament and local councillors.

Polling centres have opened at 6am to allow 6.8 million registered voters to choose their leaders.

vice president Saulos Chilima and Lazarus Chakwera are the main challengers to President Peter Mutharika who is seeking reelection in the presidential election which has seven candidates.

The other four are Atupele Muluzi of United Democratic Front, Peter Kuwani of Mbakuwaku Movement, John Chisi of Umodzi Party and independent candidate Hadwick Kaliya.

The presidential candidate with the largest share of the votes cast will win Malawi’s sixth election since the return of multiparty democracy in 1994.

The Malawi Electoral Commission has eight days to announce the result but the winner could be officially announced by the end of the week.

Meanwhile, Chairperson Dr. Jane Ansah says voting has started well and the commission has not reported any challenge so far and all centres have opened across the country.

The MEC Chair was on the ground in Blantyre as polls opened. </s> BLANTYRE, Malawi — Voting has started in in Malawi to elect a new president and 193 members of parliament.

Before dawn, hundreds of voters lined up Tuesday at polling centers to cast their ballots in the election in which 78-year-old President Peter Mutharika is seeking re-election to a second term.

Mutharika is in a tight race against his vice-president, 46-year-old Saulos Chilima, and the leader of the main opposition Malawi Congress Party, Lazarus Chakwera, 64.

Malawi’s army and police will provide security at polling stations for the 6 million registered voters.

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> Polling stations opened at 6:00 hours local time (0400 GMT) in Malawi on Tuesday, and voters will now have the opportunity to decide the fate of incumbent president Peter Mutharika who is battling to hold off two serious rivals in a race that focused on corruption allegations and economic development.

Mutharika, who has been in power since 2014, will face opposition from his own deputy Saulos Chilima and former baptist preacher Lazarus Chakwera.

“We have set Malawi on the path of progress,” Mutharika, 78, told several thousand cheering supporters of his ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in Blantyre at his final campaign rally at the weekend.

His bid for a second term has focused on the economy and his record of improving road and electricity infrastructure across the southeastern African country.

Under Mutharika, inflation has fallen from 23 percent to below nine percent, but still only 11 percent of the population has access to electricity.

The election is the first since a new law forced parties to declare large donations and banned the once-common practice by candidates of giving cash handouts.

Food shortages, power outages and ballooning external debt have hurt Mutharika’s popularity ahead of the vote.

He faces a strong challenge from Chakwera, leader of the main opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP), who came a narrow second in the 2014 election.

Ahead of the vote, Chakwera told AFP that he expected “nothing less than victory — we are winning.”

Mutharika’s other opponent, Chilima, quit the ruling party last year to form the youth-focused United Transformation Movement, while staying on as vice president.

Under Malawi law, the president cannot fire the vice president.

Chilima, 46, emphasised his youth credentials by doing push-ups on stage during the campaign.

More than half of the 6.8-million registered voters are under 35.

Dan Banik, a politics professor at the University of Malawi, told AFP that the election posed many questions.

“What will happen when a winner is declared by a narrow margin?” he said.

“How will losing presidential candidates take defeat? Will supporters of the incumbent DPP peacefully accept losing?” he asked.

Banik said that the election commission and the courts could be severely tested by counting complaints after polling day on Tuesday, when voters will also choose lawmakers and local councillors.

In Malawi’s “winner takes all” system, Mutharika won in 2014 with just 36 percent of the vote.

He came to power in the aid-dependent country vowing to tackle corruption after the “Cashgate” scandal erupted a year earlier, revealing massive looting from state coffers.

But his government has been dogged by several high-profile cases of corruption and nepotism.

Last November, Mutharika himself was forced to return a $200,000 donation from a businessman facing a corruption case in a $3-million contract to supply food to the Malawi police.

“It will even be more uncertain and tight than last time. It could undermine the legitimacy of the winning candidate,” said Michael Jana, a Malawi politics specialist at Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand.

Malawi won independence from Britain in 1964, and was then ruled by Hastings Banda as a one-party state until the first multi-party elections in 1994.

The country, which has a population of 18 million people, has one million adults living with HIV, one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world. </s> Malawi's president in the lead for re-election

BLANTYRE, Malawi (AP) — Malawi's President Peter Mutharika has taken a lead in the election with more than 75 percent of votes counted from the Tuesday poll.

Mutharika has 1.4 million votes while opposition Malawi Congress Party leader Lazarus Chakwera is second with 1.2 million votes and Vice President Saulos Chilima has 651,000 votes.

More than 3.6 million out the total 6.8 million total registered voters have been counted. This is the second day of vote tabulation which shows results from 3,792 centers out of the 5,002.

"This means we have received 75.81 percent of the total polling centers," said Malawi Electoral Commission Chairwoman Jane Ansah. She clarified that this is not a percentage of the total registered voters but total number of polling centers.

Ansah said two polling staff members have been arrested in the lakeshore town of Mangochi for attempting to manipulate elections results.

Malawi has uses 'first past the post' system where whoever amasses more votes than the other becomes a winner. Mutharika won with 36 percent of the vote in 2014 elections. </s> BLANTYRE, Malawi (AP) - Malawi's President Peter Mutharika has taken a lead in the election with more than 75 percent of votes counted from the Tuesday poll.

Mutharika has 1.4 million votes while opposition Malawi Congress Party leader Lazarus Chakwera is second with 1.2 million votes and Vice President Saulos Chilima has 651,000 votes.

More than 3.6 million out the total 6.8 million total registered voters have been counted. This is the second day of vote tabulation which shows results from 3,792 centers out of the 5,002.

"This means we have received 75.81 percent of the total polling centers," said Malawi Electoral Commission Chairwoman Jane Ansah. She clarified that this is not a percentage of the total registered voters but total number of polling centers.

Ansah said two polling staff members have been arrested in the lakeshore town of Mangochi for attempting to manipulate elections results.

Malawi has uses 'first past the post' system where whoever amasses more votes than the other becomes a winner. Mutharika won with 36 percent of the vote in 2014 elections.

In this Tuesday, May 21, 2019, photo, boxes of ballot papers are held under armed guard before vote counting gets underway in Blantyre, Malawi. The country went to the polls to elect a new president in which 78-year-old President Peter Mutharika is seeking re-election to a second term. (AP Photo/Thoko Chikondi)
Voters head to the polls to elect the next President of Malawi, Parliament and local government councillors.