Malawi goes to the polls on September 16 in a tightly contested presidential election that has drawn some of the country’s most prominent political figures, alongside parliamentary and local government races. Incumbent President Lazarus Chakwera, 70, is seeking a second term in office after securing power in 2020 through a judiciary-ordered re-run of the disputed 2019 election. But his leadership has faced mounting criticism over Malawi’s worsening economic woes. For more than three years, the donor-dependent southern African nation has grappled with double-digit inflation, crippling shortages of fuel and medicines, and repeated natural disasters. On the campaign trail, Chakwera has admitted that citizens are under strain but insists external shocks are to blame. “The economy has been battered by cyclones,...