Voting has begun in Malawi, in an election in which 11 candidates are seeking to unseat President Joyce Banda, Southern Africa’s first female head of state, who came to power two years ago.. In her first months in office, Banda enjoyed huge goodwill among the landlocked nation’s 13 million people who despised her predecessor Bingu wa Mutharika’s autocratic style. More recently, her reputation for probity has been hit by a 15 million dollar corruption scandal, dubbed ‘Cashgate’ after the discovery of large amounts of money in the car of a senior government official. The scandal has soured government relations with donors. Banda faces stiff challenge from Mutharika’s younger brother Peter who is running as the head of the Democratic Progressive Party, and Lazarus Chakwera, a conservative evangelical pastor who retired from the church last year, to take the helm of the Malawi Congress Party. Atupele Muluzi, a son of former president Bakili Muluzi is also in the race.
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