{Mozambique\u2019s main opposition party Renamo today rejected election results that appeared to show the ruling Frelimo party on path for a landslide victory.}<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not accepting the results of these elections\u201d party spokesman Antonio Muchanga said, in a move that raises the spectre of post-election violence.<\/p>\n
Frelimo party is likely to sweep hard-fought presidential and legislative elections, according to first results and unofficial projections released today.<\/p>\n
A partial vote count and projections by civil society groups suggested Frelimo\u2019s Filipe Nyusi will become the country\u2019s new president, winning around 60 per cent, a huge drop from the 75 per cent won by the party\u2019s candidate in the 2009 election.<\/p>\n
With just over eight per cent of polling stations reporting, Nyusi held 61 per cent of the vote, according to the official tally, which was in line with the groups\u2019 forecasts.<\/p>\n
\u201cPreliminary numbers and projections indicate the Frelimo will win a landslide victory,\u201d said a report by the Centre for Public Integrity and the Association of European Parliamentarians with Africa.<\/p>\n
The vote took place against a backdrop of rising discontent over vast income disparities, despite a mineral resources windfall in the southern African nation.<\/p>\n
Rapid economic growth has failed to benefit the bulk of a population that is among the world\u2019s poorest.<\/p>\n
Mr Nyusi\u2019s main opponent, rebel turned opposition leader Afonso Dhlakama of the Renamo party, was trailing in second position with 31 percent of votes, according to the projection.<\/p>\n
The third and youngest of the presidential candidates, Daviz Simango, was in third position with eight percent, a similar percentage to his tally in 2009.<\/p>\n
Voting was largely peaceful aside from sporadic clashes between police and opposition activists who claim that Frelimo, which has run Mozambique since it gained independence from Portugal in 1975, tried to stuff ballot boxes.<\/p>\n
Paulo Cuinica, spokesman for the national Electoral Commission, said despite several incidents the polls had been \u201cfree and fair\u201d.
\nHe confirmed unrest in several towns, including the opposition strongholds of Beira and Nampula where police fired teargas to disperse crowds.
\n\u201cThis was due to the desire by the people to watch the count but this is not allowed by the law. Police had to act,\u201d he told reporters.
\nHe said six people were arrested in the coal-rich northwestern Tete province where \u201cquite a number of polling stations were destroyed and material burnt.\u201d
\nFour polling stations failed to open in northwestern Niassa province because there were problems with the delivery of balloting material.
\nThe opposition complained that many of their monitors were barred from watching the polls because their accreditation was not accepted. The electoral commission denied the claims.<\/p>\n
European Union observers said opposition monitors were absent at up to 34 percent of polling stations.<\/p>\n
The projections suggest a more balanced 250-seat parliament, with Frelimo\u2019s count reduced from 191 to 142, Renamo upping its presence from 51 seats to 75 and MDM from eight to 31 seats.<\/p>\n
Nyusi, an engineer and former defence minister, is Frelimo\u2019s candidate to replace incumbent President Armando Guebuza, who is prohibited by the constitution from running for a third term.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe noticed some irregularities, but I would say all-in-all until closing time, it was fairly okay. It was calm,\u201d EU observer chief Judith Sargentini told AFP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{Mozambique\u2019s main opposition party Renamo today rejected election results that appeared to show the ruling Frelimo party on path for a landslide victory.} \u201cWe are not accepting the results of these elections\u201d party spokesman Antonio Muchanga said, in a move that raises the spectre of post-election violence. Frelimo party is likely to sweep hard-fought presidential […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000054547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-16914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000054547,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16914.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16914.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16914.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16914.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16914.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16914.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000054547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16914"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=16914"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=16914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}