Election crucial test of peace deal
MAPUTO, Mozambique — Mozambique turned to votecounting on Tuesday in an election that tests a wary peace in the southern African nation of nearly 30 million people, while scattered incidents of ballotstuffing were reported and observers in several provinces were restricted from doing their work.
Acceptance of the presidential, parliamentary and provincial election results is a key test of the ceasefire signed in August between the government and opposition Renamo rebels after years of skirmishes following a 15year civil war that killed an estimated 1 million people.
The ruling Frelimo party, which has governed since Mozambique’s independence from Portugal in 1975, is expected to be returned to power. President Filipe Nyusi is expected to win a second term in a vote where insecurity and political tensions kept some people from the polls.
Nyusi urged Mozambicans to avoid violence and maintain “total serenity, total calm” — a week after police acknowledged that several suspects in the murder of prominent local election observer Anastacio Matavel were police officers, leading to condemnation from some international vote observer groups.
Local feelings on Nyusi are mixed. The president can claim credit for the $25 billion Mozambique Liquid Natural Gas project, part of efforts to tap substantial deposits of natural gas, but his first term has been overshadowed by an economic crisis caused by a $2 billion corruption scandal in which companies set up by the secret services and defense ministry secretly borrowed money to set up projects that never materialized.
The opposition Renamo’s candidate and new leader Ossufo Momade is expected to benefit from the party’s popularity in the countryside.
In comments carried by national broadcaster TVM, Momade held up what appeared to be tamperedwith ballots, saying, “It can’t continue like this … We want democracy. We want peace.” He said his party would not accept any vote manipulation, and called on “my brother” Nyusi and security forces to respect the popular vote.
The local Center for Public Integrity noted incidents of premarked ballots and lateopening voting centers, but the center and a collection of nongovernmental organizations said that in general polls opened normally across the country.
“We are already on the right track, but we need a little more,” said one voter, Ofelia Rambique, in the capital, Maputo. “We hope that with these elections the government will try to do more things to achieve peace and achieve the change that everyone expects.”
Preliminary results are expected Wednesday.