Malawi's high-tech election balances on fragile trust

The hum of servers and silent data streams from more than 15 000 polling stations signal a new era for Malawi's democracy.

- Collins Mtika

Yet, as the nation waits for results from its tripartite elections on Tuesday, which pitted incumbent President Lazarus Chakwera and his predecessor Peter Mutharika against each other, the systems designed to ensure transparency are crashing into the force of public mistrust.

The vote is a test of whether the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC), discredited in 2020 by the Constitutional Court over the previous year's annulled election, can deliver a result the country will accept.

Of 10.9 million eligible voters, only 7.2 million registered, a gap analysts blame on apathy and disillusionment with politics in a country where inflation is above 20% and 70% of the population lives in poverty.

On voting day, the turnout was recorded at 51% by mid-afternoon, down from 64% in the 2020 rerun that followed the annulment of the 2019 election. Later reports put the final turnout rate near 63%.

MEC chairperson justice Annabel Mtalimanja said on Wednesday the commission had retrieved polling results from 15 127 out of 15 148 polling stations, a 99.86% retrieval rate.