Malawi Despot’s Reign Appears at End
People beheaded black roosters and drivers tooted horns Wednesday to celebrate early vote returns that showed Africa’s longest-ruling dictator heading for defeat in Malawi’s first multi-party election.
President H. Kamuzu Banda, who has ruled since independence from Britain in 1964, was far behind a former ally, Bakili Muluzi.
Small groups of Muluzi’s supporters danced joyously holding headless black roosters the symbol of Banda’s ruling party.
A source at state-run Malawi Broadcasting Corp., which stopped reporting results, said the latest unofficial returns gave Muluzi about 900,000 votes. Labor leader Chakufwa Chihana, a onetime political prisoner, had 400,000, and Banda had 350,000.
About 3.7 million people in this southeast African nation were eligible to vote in the election, which was forced by growing domestic unrest and pressure from Western aid donors.
The election had been expected to end Banda’s reign and put the nation, one of the world’s poorest, on the road to recovery.
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