Maputo - Mozambique's incumbent President
Filipe Nyusi has won a landslide victory in an election it was
hoped would calm tensions in a nation soon to become a top
global gas exporter, but has instead stoked divisions as
opposition parties cry foul.
Nyusi secured 73% of the vote in the presidential race, the
National Election Commission (CNE) said on Sunday, while his
party, the ruling Frelimo, also won big in the legislative and
provincial contests.
Ossufo Momade, candidate for former guerrilla movement
turned main opposition party Renamo, which has already rejected
the outcome, trailed with 21.88% of the vote, the CNE said.
During his second five-year term, Nyusi will be responsible
for overseeing a gas boom led by oil giants such as Exxon Mobil
Corp and Total, battling a festering Islamist
insurgency and delivering on a peace deal signed two months ago.
Speaking to supporters in a suburb of the capital Maputo,
where he appeared on stage to a chorus of cheers and vuvuzelas,
Nyusi said he would further develop Mozambique and speed up the
implementation of the deal.
"I will work so that we can have a prosperous, equitable and
fair Mozambique," he told the crowd. "In these elections, the
Mozambican people won."
It was hoped the Oct. 15 poll could set the seal on the
fragile peace pact, designed to put a definitive end to four
decades of violence between Frelimo and Renamo. The two fought a
16-year civil war that ended in a truce in 1992 but have clashed
sporadically since.
Instead the deal is at risk of falling apart as opposition
parties reject the results, claiming they were tarnished by
fraud, violence and irregularities from the outset. Frelimo says
the elections were free and fair.
Analysts say a return to all-out conflict is highly unlikely
even if the deal collapses, but low-level violence, including
from an armed group of breakaway former Renamo fighters, could
worsen. That could suck the government's focus and resources
away from the insurgency in the gas-rich north.
"SHAMEFUL"
Eight members of the CNE, which is made up of Frelimo and
opposition party representatives, voted against accepting the
results earlier this week, verses nine in favour.
Speaking after the conference, Fernando Mazanga, a Renamo
member of the CNE, said they distanced themselves from the
results because of irregularities.
"It is shameful and a disgrace what we are witnessing here,"
he said.
Daviz Simango, of the third largest party the Mozambique
Democratic Movement (MDM), secured just over 4% of the
presidential vote
Earlier on Sunday, he said MDM saw the election outcome as
"null and void". A number of observer groups, including from the
European Union, United States and Commonwealth, raised concerns
about the process from registration through to vote counting.
Frelimo gained 40 seats in the 250-seat parliament, taking a
total of 184 compared with 60 for Renamo - down by almost a
third - and 6 for MDM.
Frelimo also won a majority in all 10 of Mozambique's
provinces in the provincial poll - a contest seen as central to
the survival of the peace pact.
For the first time, provincial governors will be appointed
by the majority party in each province rather than the
government - a key demand of Renamo during peace talks.
The party had wanted to win control of a number of provinces
in Mozambique's centre and north to achieve this long-thwarted
ambition for influence, but has instead come away empty handed.
Turnout was slightly higher than in the previous general
election in 2014, with just over 50% of the more than 13 million
registered voters coming out to cast their ballots.