Frelimo poll win seen as secure

Supporters of Frelimo Party cheer during a rally of the candidate of the party for the presidential elections, on the last day of campaigning in Maputo. Picture: ANTONIO SILVA

Supporters of Frelimo Party cheer during a rally of the candidate of the party for the presidential elections, on the last day of campaigning in Maputo. Picture: ANTONIO SILVA

Published Oct 23, 2014

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Maputo - Mozambique's electoral commission on Thursday started examining hundreds of thousands of allegedly invalid ballots cast in October 15 elections although they were not expected to alter the strong victory of the ruling Frelimo party.

Results announced late Wednesday gave its presidential candidate, Filipe Nyusi, 63 per cent of the vote after more than 90 per cent of the ballots had been counted.

Afonso Dhlakama, the candidate of the Renamo party, was running second with 31 per cent, and Daviz Simango from the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM) was third with 6 per cent.

In the simultaneous parliamentary elections, Frelimo had taken 62 per cent, Renamo 30 per cent and the MDM 8 per cent, according to the vote counts.

Both Renamo and the MDM rejected the results, and concerns mounted that the losses suffered by Renamo could prompt it to relaunch its low-level insurgency, which ended with a peace deal in August and allowed Dhlakama to run for president.

The electoral commission said it would examine more than 500,000 blank or otherwise allegedly invalid ballots. Up to 20 per cent of them were expected to be accepted as valid, which was deemed unlikely to have a significant impact on the results.

EU election observers and the United States have complained of irregularities, such as missing materials at polling stations, “faulty handling” of voting materials and delays in the vote count.

Electoral commission spokesman Paulo Cuinica pledged that all doubts would be cleared.

The elections pitted the former independence movement Frelimo, which has governed Mozambique since its independence from Portugal in 1975, against Renamo, a former anti-communist movement that waged a 16-year civil war against the initially Marxist Frelimo.

A 1993 peace deal turned Renamo into the biggest opposition party.

In 2012, Dhlakama launched a campaign of highway ambushes and attacks against police stations, accusing Frelimo of excluding the opposition from economic power.

Defence Minister Nyusi is to succeed outgoing President Armando Guebuza, who was not allowed to run for office again after completing two terms.

In the 2009 elections, Guebuza took 75 per cent of the vote.

Poverty remains widespread in Mozambique despite the economy growing at a rate of about 7 per cent annually as offshore gas finds fuel an investment boom.

Sapa-dpa

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