Malawians head to polls in economic despair

LILONGWE: Malawians vote for a new president next week in an election clouded by economic hardship as incumbent Lazarus Chakwera squares off against his predecessor in a race where few voters see a real alternative.

Three of the 17 candidates for the September 16 polls have already served as president of the southern African nation and another is the current vice president.

While the list of contenders is unusually crowded, voters have lost faith in the political class to one of the poorest countries in the world, analysts say.

“Whether it is Chakwera or (his predecessor Peter) Mutharika, nothing changes for us. It’s like choosing between two sides of the same coin,” said Victor Shawa, a 23-year-old unemployed man in the capital Lilongwe.The economy is in crisis, the politicians are the same, and many Malawians don’t believe this election will change their lives,” he told AFP.

Chakwera, a 70-year-old evangelical preacher, wants a second term after a mixed performance during a first run handed to him only after the 2019 election result was cancelled over rigging claims.I will vote for Chakwera because he has improved road infrastructure and supported youth businesses,” said 20-year-old Mervis Bodole, a small trader from central Malawi. “But the cost of living is still too high and many of us are struggling.”When people cannot afford food, when jobs are scarce, when inflation is out of control — those factors influence the vote more than anything else,” said Bertha Chikadza, president of the Economics Association of Malawi.

“Young people are told we are the future,” Shawa said. “But when we look at these elections, all we see are the same old faces fighting for power while we fight to survive

Mutharika, 85, is banking on discontent with Chakwera to revive his political fortunes. But his own term, which ran from 2014 until 2020, was marked by economic stagnation, shortages of basic goods and allegations of cronyism.

The 2020 rerun gave Chakwera, leader of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), nearly 59 per cent of ballots, denying a second term to Mutharika, a lawyer, from the Democratic Progressive Party who had been ahead in the tarnished first round.

Optimism that accompanied Chakwera coming to power has long since been eroded by runaway inflation of around 30 per cent, chronic fuel and foreign exchange shortages and corruption scandals touching senior