A closely contested Malawi election has been marred in several logistical challenges that have cause wide spread discontent that threatens to degenerate into a serious political crisis if the results are delayed or if a disputed result is announced.

On Thursday, the electoral commission – MEC – said the electronic voting system had broken down making it difficult to tally results from the polling stations and forcing officials to send in results via faxes and emails. The MEC is only allowed to announce results after over 30 percent of the votes have been tallied, AFP reported on Thursday.

No results have been announced from the tight-run polls that pit incumbent Joyce Banda, the second female president in Africa, against her close rival and predecessor’s brother Peter Mutharika. Around 7.5 million people were eligible to vote in the fifth democratic elections since the end of dictatorship 20 years ago.

On Tuesday, the military had to be deployed to restore calm after irate voters set alight voting stations when election materials were unavailable and some bureaus opened 10 hours late. Voting spilled into an unscheduled second day Wednesday at 13 voting stations, and thousands queued to cast their ballot.