Malawians voted Tuesday in elections overshadowed by soaring prices and crippling fuel shortages, with the economic gloom a challenge to President Lazarus Chakwera's bid for a second term.

In a crowded field of 17 candidates, observers said Chakwera's closest rival was his predecessor, 85-year-old Peter Mutharika, a law professor who has spent decades living outside of the southern African nation, one of the poorest countries in the world.

While many mainly younger voters said they wanted change, others were willing to give Chakwera a second chance to fix an economy bogged down by inflation at above 27 percent and a chronic foreign exchange shortage that has forced limits on imports of fuel, fertiliser and food.

"There is anger in us," said Ettah Nyasulu, 28, a waitress in the capital L

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