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BLANTYRE: At a rally of pounding drums and ululating women, star Malawian rapper Fredokiss urged young people to vote in next month’s elections despite their disenchantment with the government and the choice of main presidential candidates, all aged over 70.

More than half of the population of the impoverished central African country is under 35 and the turnout on Sept. 16 of young voters — who made up 54 percent of registered voters in the 2019 election — is seen as a potential game-changer.

“Young people have the numbers, we have the voice,” the 37-year-old rapper-turned-politician said on the sidelines of the recent event in the southern city of Blantyre, a part-rally and part-street party held in a swirl of the red colors of his United Transformation Movement.

“We are the ones who will choose the next president — whether we like them or not — and the next MPs and councillors,” said Fredokiss, whose real name is Fredo Penjani Kalua.

But with campaigning in full swing, many young voters said they were uninspired by the familiar faces running to unseat President Lazarus Chakwera, 70, and his Malawi Congress Party, which has been accused of mismanagement since regaining power in 2020.

Chakwera took office following 2020 elections after the previous year’s poll was nullified over charges of widespread irregularities.

His main challengers are two former presidents: Peter Mutharika, 85, of the Democratic Progressive Party, and People’s Party candidate Joyce Banda, 74.

At 51, former central bank governor Dalitso Kabambe — candidate for another of the major parties, the UTM — is a spring chicken in comparison.

“This is our country, our home. We have to make it better,” said Fredokiss, who is running for the second time for a seat in parliament after losing out in 2019.

Nearly three-quarters of Malawi’s more than 21 million people live in extreme poverty, according to the World Bank.

Months of inflation nearing 30 percent and crippling fuel shortages have made the economy a key issue in the largely rural and underdeveloped country, which is rich in natural resources but heavily indebted and dependent on foreign aid.

Fredokiss uses his music to denounce nepotism, tribalism and cronyism in Malawian politics, and to criticize the exploitation of local labor by foreign businesses and the crushing weight of youth unemployment.

“Governments and politicians are not providing solutions for young people: jobs, business opportunities, real hope,” Fredokiss said. “That’s why many are disgruntled. But this election should be the start, not the end, of our action.”

“It’s the same old faces with the same tired promises,” said a 30-year-old shopkeeper in the capital, Lilongwe, who would only give her name as Sandra.

“I registered hoping for fresh candidates with real ideas, but none have shown up — so why waste my vote?”

“None of the candidates make sense to me, so why pretend my vote would?” said Robert Chimtolo, 30, who runs the Maphunziro youth empowerment non-profit organization.

Sixty percent of the under-35 electorate turned out at the 2019 vote compared to 80 percent of older voters, according to election commission figures.

LONDON/KYIV: Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky flies to Washington on Monday under heavy US pressure to agree a swift end to Russia’s war in Ukraine but determined to defend Kyiv’s interests — without sparking a second Oval Office bust-up with Donald Trump.

The US president invited Zelensky to Washington after rolling out the red carpet for Vladimir Putin, Kyiv’s arch foe, at a summit in Alaska that shocked many in Ukraine, where hundreds of thousands have died since Russia’s 2022 invasion.

The Alaska talks failed to produce the ceasefire that Trump sought, and the US leader said on Saturday that he now wanted a rapid, full-fledged peace deal and that Kyiv should accept because “Russia is a very big power, and they’re not.”

The blunt rhetoric throws the onus squarely back on Zelensky, putting him in a perilous position as he returns to Washington for the first time since his talks with Trump in the Oval Office in February descended into acrimony.

The US president upbraided him in front of world media at the time, saying Zelensky did not “hold the cards” in negotiations and that what he described as Kyiv’s intransigence risked triggering World War Three.

Trump’s pursuit of a quick deal defies intense diplomacy by the European allies and Ukraine to convince him that a ceasefire should come first and not — as sought by the Kremlin — once a settlement is agreed.

A source familiar with the matter told Reuters that European leaders had also been invited to Monday’s meeting between Trump and Zelensky, though it was unclear who would actually attend.

Trump briefed Zelensky on his talks with Putin during a call on Saturday that lasted more than an hour and a half, the Ukrainian leader said. They were joined after an hour by European and NATO officials, he added.

“The impression is he wants a fast deal at any price,” a source familiar with the conversation said.

The source said Trump told Zelensky that Putin had offered to freeze the front lines elsewhere as part of a deal, if Ukraine fully withdrew its troops from the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, something Zelensky said was not possible.

Trump and US envoy Steve Witkoff told the Ukrainian leader that Putin had said there could be no ceasefire before that happened, and that the Russian leader could pledge not to launch any new aggression against Ukraine as part of an agreement.

Kyiv has publicly dismissed the idea of withdrawing from internationally recognized Ukrainian land as part of a deal, and says the industrial Donetsk region serves as a fortress holding back Russian advances deeper into Ukraine.

Oleksandr Merezhko, head of the Ukrainian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, told Reuters by phone that Trump’s emphasis on a deal rather than a ceasefire carried great risks for Ukraine.

“In Putin’s view, a peace agreement means several dangerous things – Ukraine not joining NATO, his absurd demands for denazification and demilitarization, the Russian language and the Russian church,” he said.

Any such deal could be politically explosive inside Ukraine, Merezhko said, adding he was worried that Putin’s ostracism in the West had ended.

SECURITY GUARANTEES

Avoiding a repeat of the Oval Office row is critical for Zelensky to preserve relations with the US, which still provides military assistance and is the key source of intelligence on Russia’s military activity.

For Ukraine, robust guarantees to prevent any future Russian invasion are fundamental to any serious settlement.

Two sources familiar with the matter said Trump and the European leaders discussed potential security guarantees for Ukraine similar to the transatlantic NATO alliance’s mutual support pledge during their call. It says, in effect, that an attack on one is treated as an attack on all.

One of the two sources, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said European leaders were seeking details on what kind of US role was envisaged.

Zelensky has repeatedly said a trilateral meeting with the Russian and US leaders is crucial to finding a way to end the full-scale war launched by Russia in February 2022.

Trump this week voiced the idea of such a meeting, saying it could happen if his talks in Alaska with Putin were successful.

“Ukraine emphasizes that key issues can be discussed at the level of leaders, and a trilateral format is suitable for this,” Zelensky wrote on social media on Saturday. Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov told the Russian state news agency TASS a three-way summit had not been discussed in Alaska.