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Mozambicans voting

Schuster, KathleenOctober 15, 2014

Mozambicans are voting in presidential, parliamentary and provincial elections seen as a crucial test for the incumbent Frelimo party. Poverty remains widespread despite foreign investments in offshore energy projects.

https://p.dw.com/p/1DVnq
Wahlen Mosambik 15.10.2014 Wahlurne Stimmabgabe
Image: Getty Images/AFP/Gianluigi Guercia

Mosambique's ruling Frelimo party was facing electoral challenges on Wednesday, mainly from two opposition parties, the former rebel movement Renamo and the breakaway Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM).

More than 10.9 million registered voters were entitled to cast their votes. The presidential ballot, involving 27 parties in all, is the fifth such vote since a 1992 peace deal ended a civil war.

Frelimo's candidate, Filipe Nyusi, a former defense minister is being challenged by former Renamo chief Afonso Dhlakama and MDM's Daviz Simango, a Renamo defector who draws support among young voters.

In Mozambique's municipal elections in December, the MDM garnered 38 percent of the urban vote.

Outgoing Frelimo President Armando Guebusa is barred by the constitution from standing for a third term.

Wahlen Mosambik Filipe Nyusi auf einem Plakat
Filipe Nyusi will be running this time around for the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo)Image: Getty Images/AFP/ Gianluigi Guercia

A run-off will be held within 30 days of the official results release if none of the trio garners more than half of the vote.

Analyst Nelson Alusala of the South Africa-based Institute of Security Studies said Mozambicans wanted change amid youth unemployment while investors look to natural gas and oil projects, offshore in the Indian Ocean.

Developers include the US oil concern Anadarko Petroleum Corp and Italy's Eni. Mozambique also sits on coal resources and has farming and fisheries potential.

The majority of Mozambique's 25 million people live in poverty although gross domestic product (GDP) topped 8 percent this year.

While campaigning, Renamo's Dhlakama and MDM's Simango accused Frelimo, a former Marxist liberation movement, of having a stranglehold on political and economic power.

Last month, Dhlakama emerged from a mountain hideout to reaffirm the 1992 peace deal. In the past two years, Renamo partisans had clashed sporadically with government forces.

More than 1,000 international and African observers were to monitor Wednesday's voting, including envoys from the African Union and European Union.

One monitor, John Stremlau of the US-based Carter Center said the "real test" would be whether the election winner would think inclusively for the whole population.

Boats and helicopters are being used to transport ballot boxes in the vast country.

ipj/glb (AFP, dpa, Reuters)