Voting underway in Malawi elections– abcnews.go.com
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BLANTYRE, Malawi — Voting was underway Tuesday in Malawi’s elections, where the country will choose a president, lawmakers and local government representatives.
President Lazarus Chakwera, 70, is seeking a second term against 16 other candidates. Former President Peter Mutharika, 85, is expected to be his strongest challenger.
The elections are the first national polls in the southern African nation of 21 million since the 2019 presidential vote was nullified and ordered to be redone in 2020 because of widespread irregularities.
In that election, Mutharika was the incumbent and declared the winner of the first vote only for a court to throw out the result. Chakwera won the redo, which followed months of street protests.
It marked only the second time in Africa a presidential election result was canceled and redone, and the first time an incumbent was removed in a redo election.
Tuesday’s elections come as an economic crisis grips Malawi, one of Africa’s poorer and least-developed countries that is also struggling with steep inflation and food and fuel shortages.