Maputo - International observers urged Mozambique's opposition Renamo party to pursue its electoral grievances by peaceful and legal means Friday, amid fears of post-vote unrest.
Partial results showed Renamo garnered 30 percent of Wednesday's vote, trailing in second place behind Frelimo, which has ruled the country since independence from Portugal in 1975.
Renamo is a former rebel movement, which waged a 16-year war until signing a peace deal in 1992. It ended a recently renewed low-level insurgency in the centre of the country just weeks ahead of the election.
With a third of the ballots counted Frelimo had a thumping lead, with 62 percent of the vote.
But the opposition party, led by civil war belligerent Afonso Dhlakama, has rejected the tally, claimed outright victory and called for a re-run.
“We are not accepting the results of these elections,” party spokesman Antonio Muchanga said late Thursday.
“We can categorically say Renamo won these elections.”
Foreign election observers have reported pre-election violence and biased media coverage, but said the vote was credible, paving the way for former defence minister Filipe Nyusi to become the next president.
The elections “were generally peaceful, transparent, free and fair and credible,” the southern African regional bloc SADC said.
She called for their actions to be “guided by that commitment to peace and tranquility in this country.”
Fellow election observer Kenyan ex-prime minister, Raila Odinga echoed her, saying “the country is bigger than individuals.”
Dhlakama had emerged from hiding just weeks before the vote to sign the peace deal.
Renamo fought a long civil war against the formerly Marxist Frelimo, a conflict that lead the deaths of an estimated one million people.
Part of the deal to end the latest, less intense, conflict involved disarming Renamo fighters. But that process was due to kick off only after the elections.
Analysts have played down the threat of a return to serious violence.
“Renamo has rejected every election since the beginning,” said Joseph Hanlon, a lecturer at Britain's Open University and the author of a popular newsletter on Mozambican politics.
“I do not expect significant violence in the near future because they want to continue negotiating with government.”
But, he added, the actions of the new president could be critical.
“A lot will depend on what Nyusi does, because you cannot continue to marginalise a party which gets a third of the vote,” Hanlon said.
“He has to give something significant to Dhlakama as well as money.”
Any unrest could be disastrous for a country looking forward to the benefits of a mineral resource windfall as gas deposits are exploited.
Analysts warn investors are watching closely and want stability.
“Renamo's rejection of the election results was always the biggest risk to the elections,” said Chatham House researcher Alex Vines.
“It is consistent with their strategy of using brinkmanship and confrontation to extract additional concessions directly from the government.”
“Renamo's problem this time is that they have raised expectations among their supporters of victory and are finding defeat difficult to explain although they have clearly won more seats.”
The vote took place against a backdrop of rising discontent, with rapid economic growth in the southern African nation failing to benefit the bulk of a population that is among the world's poorest.
Incumbent President Armando Guebuza, from Frelimo, was prohibited by the constitution from running for a third term.
Sapa-AFP