Maputo - Mozambique's ruling Frelimo party boosted campaign funds for upcoming elections by smuggling timber to Chinese buyers, a local watchdog has charged.
The allegations by the Maputo-based Centre for Public Integrity (CIP) come as Frelimo's presidential candidate, Filipe Nyusi, is in the final stages of a costly campaign using private helicopters and jets.
“The Frelimo party has received 10 million meticais ($322 000) since June this year to finance its electoral campaign,” CIP said in a report released Thursday.
“This money came from timber smuggling in Zambezia province that was sanctioned by the Provincial Department of Agriculture.”
The NGO cited whistleblowers within the department and said it had evidence of the illegal logging.
Agriculture authorities in the poverty-stricken central province “resorted to smuggling timber to satisfy the party's demands” for campaign funds after Frelimo met with high-ranking provincial authorities in March.
“The felling and transport (of the timber) was by illegal operators for subsequent sale to Chinese citizens,” said the report.
Asked to comment on the allegations, the Frelimo party said it was not aware of the contents of the CIP report and did not have time to look into it until after presidential and legislative polls on Wednesday.
“Our efforts are concentrated on this campaign. We do not want to be distracted,” Frelimo's national spokesman, Damiao Jose, told AFP on Friday.
Frelimo's candidate Nyusi, a former defence minister, is arguably the least known of the three men vying for the presidency.
Renamo's Afonso Dhlakama has stood in four previous polls while Daviz Simango from the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) ran for the first time in 2009.
Nyusi has been crisscrossing the country, often using private helicopters or jets, while his party liberally dispenses T-shirts and hires top musicians to play at its rallies.
Despite his relative obscurity, Nyusi is widely expected to win as Frelimo has been in power since Mozambique won independence from Portugal in 1975.
The incumbent, Armando Guebuza, is stepping down after serving the maximum two terms.
Presidential candidates are allocated $250 000 each by the National Electoral Commission to fund their campaigns.
Frelimo also has substantial business interests through its holding company, SPI, and has asked private backers to dig deep into their pockets to fund its campaign.
In 2006, a report commissioned by a coalition of NGOs in Zambezia estimated that the province had some three million hectares of indigenous forest left, covering 30 percent of its total area, but that the forest was being destroyed at an alarming rate.
Sapa-AFP