Seven in running for president in Malawi elections
CORRUPTION and the need for economic growth are the main campaign issues as Malawi goes to the polls tomorrow for a presidential election that pits the incumbent against his vice-president as well as the country’s main opposition party.
The need to protect people with albinism has also emerged as a hot election topic.
More than 6 million people are registered to vote in the elections that also will decide 193 parliamentary seats in one of the world’s poorest countries.
Although seven candidates are running for president, just three are seen as having a chance at winning. As Malawi has no run-off election, whoever receives the most votes wins, even if the share is well below 50%. The 78-year-old President Peter Mutharika of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party is up against 46-yearold Vice-President Saulos Chilima of the United Transformation Movement and main opposition Malawi Congress Party leader Lazarus Chakwera, 64.
Former president Joyce Banda has dropped out of the race and is supporting Chakwera via a coalition with her People’s Party.
While Mutharika pursues a second five-year term, he has been dogged by rivals’ accusations of corruption, which he has denied.
Political analyst Andrew Mpesi said the graft charges could hurt the president in this election.
“Every Malawian is aware that almost every day the front pages of mainstream papers in this country reported government corruption, theft and abuse of public resources,” he said.
Despite allegations of election-rigging being exchanged by Mutharika and Chilima, Mpesi said Malawi’s electoral commission had been transparent during the preparation process, “which gives people some confidence that we can have better elections”. Opposition parties appear to have improved their ability to monitor the process, he added.
The killing and abduction of people with albinism, and the widespread impunity for those who carry it out, also has emerged as an election issue. Twenty-five people have been killed and 10 have gone missing since late 2014, according to the Association of People Living with Albinism.
People with albinism are targeted for their body parts, which are sold for use in potions by witchdoctors who claim they bring wealth and good luck.
Chakwera has vowed to end the killings within a month of taking office. Mutharika has rebuked him, however, saying “it is immoral for any political leader to sink so low and use the suffering of our brothers and sisters with albinism for political gain.”
Newcomer Chilima, whose party is only nine months old after breaking with Mutharika’s party during a power struggle, is appealing to Malawi’s younger voters, who make up 54% of those registered in this election. He is promising jobs in a country where unemployment is over 20%.
Mutharika says his government is committed to introducing more infrastructure development projects, pointing to the construction of roads, bridges and hospitals.
For the first time, the election is being carried out under a new law that regulates funding for political parties, which now must declare all donations exceeding $1 398 (nearly R20 190) from individuals and $2 796 from companies.