MAPUTO, Mozambique (AP) — Mozambique will vote for a new president on Wednesday at an election that is expected extend the ruling party’s 49 years in power since the South African country gained independence from Portugal in 1975.
Daniel Chapo, 47, is the candidate for the ruling Front for the Liberation of Mozambique, or Frelimo, and is seeking to succeed President Filipe Nyusi, who has served a maximum of two terms.
Analysts say the biggest challenge to Chapo and Frelimo’s dominance will likely come from 50-year-old independent Venancio Mondlane.
People will also vote for the composition of parliament and provincial governors in a country of some 33 million people that is in crisis. bloody, 15-year civil war which ended in 1992, and has recently been rocked by an ongoing crisis violent jihadist uprising in the north.
Ending that uprising and bringing stability to Cabo Delgado province – where 1.3 million people fled their homes more than half are still displaced – is a promise from both leading candidates.
The counting of votes will begin immediately after the polling stations close for the one-day elections. Preliminary results are expected in some areas from Thursday, and full results must be submitted to the Constitutional Council within 15 days of the close of polls to be validated and formally announced. About 17 million people are registered to vote.
The credibility of the elections will come under scrutiny, with the left-wing Frelimo party accused of election fraud and falsifying the results in previous elections, including last year’s local electionswhere it was declared winner in 64 of the 65 municipalities.
Frelimo has consistently denied allegations of election tampering. Teams of regional and international election observers, including from the European Union, are present in Mozambique.
Frelimo essentially established a one-party state after independence and waged a civil war against the Mozambican National Resistance, or Renamo, for a decade and a half. The country, where Portuguese is still the official language, held its first elections in 1994, two years after a peace agreement.
Renamo will also participate in these elections, with party leader Ossufo Momade, a military commander in the civil war, as its candidate for president. The former rebel group has seen its popularity decline, while the peace between Frelimo and Renamo has been fragile, with more fighting breaking out in 2013. Momade and outgoing leader Nyusi signed another peace deal in 2019, but tensions remain.
The independent Mondlane, which broke away from Renamo, has focused its campaign on young Mozambicans frustrated by poverty and unemployment. The country has a long coastline with beaches on the Indian Ocean, but that area has always been vulnerable ravaged by cyclones and drought in recent years.
Meanwhile, in 2016, it emerged that government officials and others had done just that has embezzled more than $2 billion in foreign loans which were kept secret, throwing the economy into crisis.
Mondlane joined a coalition of opposition parties, but they were not allowed to participate in the elections, leading Frelimo to be accused of attempting to control the elections. Mondlane is now backed by a new party called Podemos, which means ‘we can’ in Portuguese.
While Mondlane, a former banker, represents a new challenge for Frelimo, most analysts expect the ruling party to remain in power. Five years ago, the country was declared the winner in national elections with more than 70% of the votes.
The venture firm Pangea, which provides security and investment advice to developing countries, said Chapo’s election was “carefully staged” by Frelimo.
Chapo worked as a radio announcer and television host before becoming a law professor. He was governor of the southern province of Inhambane – Mozambique’s top tourist region – but was a surprise winner of an internal party vote in May to become Frelimo’s presidential candidate.
If he wins, Chapo would be Mozambique’s first leader born after independence.
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