Counting of votes has begun following the closure of polling stations at 14:00 GMT in Malawi’s presidential election.
Incumbent President Lazarus Chakwera is seeking a second term, with his main rival being former President Peter Mutharika. Both candidates have focused on boosting the economy as a key issue in their campaigns.
Preliminary reports estimate that about 3.7 million people cast their ballots. Some polling stations experienced delays due to malfunctioning biometric fingerprint readers.
The Malawi Electoral Commission is expected to announce the presidential results by September 24, while parliamentary election results should be released by September 30.
To accommodate voters who could not write, some were allowed to mark their ballots using an inked fingerprint, while others used pens.
The election is largely seen as a two-horse race between Chakwera and Mutharika, though 15 other candidates are also in the running, including former president Joyce Banda, Malawi’s only female head of state.