Malawi polls kicked off on Tuesday after a closely fought election campaign, with President Peter Mutharika battling to hold off two serious rivals in a race that has focused on corruption allegations and economic development.

Mutharika, who has been in power since 2014, faces opposition from his own deputy Saulos Chilima and former baptist preacher Lazarus Chakwera.

“We have set Malawi on the path of progress,” Mutharika, 78, told several thousand cheering supporters of his ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) at his final campaign rally during  the weekend.

His bid for a second term has highlighted on the economy and his record of improving road and electricity infrastructure across the southeastern African country.

Under Mutharika, inflation has fallen from 23 percent to below nine percent, but still only 11 percent of the population has access to electricity.

The election is the first since a new law forced parties to declare large donations and banned the once-common practice by candidates of giving cash handouts.

“I’m hoping for change. We need jobs to change our lives and that is what I hope my candidate does,” electorate Madalitso Willie, 25, a motor mechanic in Lilongwe, told AFP, declining to reveal his preference.

“We have been disappointed so many times before but now we want something different,” said Violet Moyo, 30, businesswoman, as she waited to vote after polls opened at 6am (0400 GMT). “I’m super excited for voting.”

The nation won independence from Britain in 1964, and was then ruled by Hastings Banda as a one-party state until the first multi-party elections in 1994.

The country, which has a population of 18 million people, has one million adults living with HIV one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world.