Mozambique: Incumbent in Line to Win General Elections

Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo party and its candidate Filipe Nyusi won this month’s presidential and legislative elections, according to provisional results released on Friday, with votes counted from all provinces.

The Maputo City Elections Commission on Sunday announced the "intermediate count" from the municipal election held last Wednesday, confirming that the ruling Frelimo Party will remain in control of the Mozambican capital.

The Commission chairperson, Ana Chemane, announced that 389,302 citizens had cast ballots, a turnout of 63.14 per cent.

Frelimo, which has ruled Mozambique since its independence in 1975, also maintained its majority in the 250-seat parliament, but was expected to end up with some 50 seats fewer than it won in 2009 elections.

Frelimo kept control with 57 per cent of the vote, slightly less than the 58 per cent it achieved in the 2013 municipal elections. Those elections were boycotted by the main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, and as a result opposition votes in 2013 were concentrated on the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), which won 40 per cent.

Nyusi, 55, an engineer and veteran administrator of Mozambique’s state railways, was selected by the ruling party as its candidate to succeed President Armando Guebuza, who is barred by the constitution from serving a third term.

This time, with Renamo returning to municipal elections, the MDM vote collapsed to just over five per cent, and Renamo took over 36 per cent.

The figures announced by Chemane were as follows:

Frelimo: 214,103 (56.95 per cent)

Renamo: 136,947 (36.43 per cent)

MDM: 19,269 (5.13 per cent)

The remaining one and a half per cent of the votes were divided among nine minor parties and groups.

Speaking to an audience of about 200 members and supporters of Frelimo after the announcement of the results, Comiche promised to comply with the election manifesto which led him to victory.

"The municipal citizens banked on my experience, and I thank them for this vote of confidence", he said.

He invited his political opponents to contribute with ideas that might be useful to serve the residents of Maputo. Aspects of the opposition parties' election manifestos might be incorporated into Frelimo's governance programme, Comiche said.

Credit: Reuters, All Africa

Photo Credit: Reuters