Mozambicans started voting yesterday in a tough electoral test for the ruling Frelimo, the party that has run the resource-rich country since independence in 1975.
Voters in neat lines started casting their ballots shortly after 7am, with Frelimo facing growing discontent amid an apparent popular swing toward the opposition.
At the Escola secundaria da Polana in the capital, Maputo, two lines with about 80 people each formed outside the school hall being used as a polling station.
Photo: Reuters
“Candidates have been promising us change and that’s what I want to see,” said Eduardo, 28, an unemployed agriculture graduate who has been looking for a job for more than two years. “Jobs, jobs. There are many graduates on the streets, some doing work that is unrelated to what they studied.”
Voter surveys cannot be published in Mozambique, but judging from the turnout at some campaign rallies, Frelimo could be in for a shock. Its glitzy final rally in its southern fiefdom of Maputo failed to attract a capacity crowd.
Twenty-seven parties and two coalitions are competing for the favor of 10.9 million registered voters in the presidential race, plus polls for national and provincial assemblies.
Analysts say that while Frelimo is expected to win the election, the opposition is likely to make significant inroads, reducing the ruling party’s overwhelming majority of 75 percent garnered in the previous vote.
Opposition ballots are likely to be split between the former rebel Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) and its breakaway Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM).
The desire for change has been driven by a wealth gap that persists despite huge mineral resources, with fast economic growth sidestepping the bulk of a population that is among the world’s poorest.
Renamo, which has lost all elections since the end of the country’s 15-year civil war in 1992, has made a comeback, trying to spruce up its image after emerging from a low-level insurgency waged in the center of the country just weeks ahead of the election.
“The recent [Sept. 5] peace agreement is an opportunity for Renamo,” said Nelson Alusala, a researcher with the Pretoria-based Institute of Security Studies.
“Mozambicans may be attracted to Renamo for the simple reason of wanting change,” he said.
At the same time the fledgling MDM, led by the mayor of the second-largest city of Beira, is gaining popularity.
Formed five years ago, the MDM gained 38 percent of the urban vote in last year’s municipal elections.
Boats and helicopters were used to transport ballot boxes to remote areas of the vast country, where most people still live off subsistence farming.
The presidential race pits former Mozambican minister of defense Filipe Nyusi of Frelimo, who is making his first bid for the country’s top job, against Renamo veteran Afonso Dhlakama and MDM founder Daviz Simango.
If none of the three garners more than 50 percent of the vote, a run-off will be held within 30 days after official final results.
Official results are expected 15 days after polling.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese