Many people line up at a voting center in Maputo, Mozambique, on October 9, 2024.
ALFREDO ZUNIGA
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Mozambique votes this Wednesday to elect the president, parliament and provincial governors, elections that are taking place under tension.
More than 17 million people in this southern African country are called to vote until 6:00 p.m. (4:00 p.m. GMT).
The outgoing president, Filipe Nyusi, 65, who will leave office after serving the maximum two terms, was one of the first to vote, according to an AFP journalist present at the polling station in the capital Maputo.
Nyusi’s party, the Marxist Liberation Front of Mozambique (Frelimo), is emerging as the favorite to remain in power, despite warnings from the opposition that it will not tolerate fraud.
The last elections, in 2019, in which Frelimo obtained 73% of the votes, were marred by irregularities. The party has been in power for half a century.
“It is important to vote to achieve change. You have to vote, leave home. If not, nothing happens,” warned merchant Amalia Brandan, 52, while waiting for her turn to vote.
Frelimo’s candidate, Daniel Chapo, 47, is a former provincial governor with no experience in the national government and is emerging as a favorite.
The elections are held in a context of economic pessimism and in a climate of fear due to jihadist attacks in the north of the country, which frustrate the hope of generating wealth from the natural gas fields in the Indian Ocean.
Three candidates ran for the opposition: Ossufo Momade of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), Lutero Simango (MDM, centre-right) and Venancio Mondlane, who recently split from Renamo.
“Nothing will change, the results will be the same,” predicted Domingos Do Rosario, a political science professor in Maputo, citing the weakness of institutions and inequalities, with 74% of the population below the poverty line. according to the World Bank.
