By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Final campaign rallies officially came to an end on Saturday ahead of what is expected to be a tight race between two leaders seeking a second term in Malawi, considered one of the poorest countries in the world.
The incumbent President Lazarus Chakwera and his predecessor, Peter Mutharika drew hundreds of supporters to wrap of the campaign in readiness for the elections.
The presidential and parliamentary elections on Tuesday come amid economic crisis in the Southern African nation, which has witnessed fuel and foreign currency shortages and the after-effects of drought and cyclones.
“There have been complaints about the cost of living, the lack of resources, food scarcity,” President Chakwera told a crowd in a stadium in the capital Lilongwe, the stronghold of his governing Malawi Congress Party.
“I have heard all of them and I have taken your words to heart. We will fix things,” the 70-year-old evangelical pastor said.
Chakwera was elected with nearly 59 percent of votes in a 2020 rerun of a vote the previous year that was nullified after the courts upheld the opposition’s claims of fraud.
He defeated former president Mutharika, who had been narrowly ahead in the cancelled first polls. Both are the leading candidates among 15 others.
“The change starts on inauguration day,” Chakwera said to cheers, blaming others in his administration for some of the problems facing the country of nearly 21 million people.
In the second city of Blantyre, Mutharika, 85, said he wanted re-election because “I want to rescue this country.”
“The country is in trouble, it is suffocating,” the lawyer said, pledging to economic reforms and job creation.
“On Tuesday, you will decide whether Malawi should go forward or will go backwards,” he said, accusing Chakwera of concentrating his flagship infrastructure projects around Lilongwe.
About 7.2 million voters are registered to cast their ballots Tuesday, with results expected before the week is over.
