Mozambique’s ruling party candidate Chapo elected president

The ruling party candidate, Daniel Chapo, has won Mozambique’s presidential elections, the electoral commission said Thursday, announcing results from the disputed October 9 polls.

Chapo, from the Frelimo party which has been in power for half a century, took nearly 71 percent of the votes compared to just over 20 percent for his main opponent, Venancio Mondlane, the National Election Commission (CNE) said.

The 47-year-old Chapo will officially take charge of the southern African country in January, becoming Mozambique’s first president born after independence from Portugal in 1975 when Frelimo first took power.

Mondlane, 50, backed by the Podemos party, has already claimed he won the vote, alleging electoral fraud and manipulation in favour of Frelimo.

Since voting day Mondlane has issued calls on social media for protests. In a new message on Facebook late Wednesday, he encouraged a “great national demonstration” against Frelimo’s half-a-century in power.

“The time has come for the people to take power and say that we now want to change the history of this country,” he said.

“In all the neighbourhoods, all the districts, we are going to be on the streets, there won’t be enough bullets for everyone, there won’t be tear gas for everyone, there won’t be enough armoured vehicles.”

– Assassination –

Tensions in a country that has already seen bouts of post-election violence were exacerbated by the double murder on Saturday of a lawyer and a political ally of Mondlane who were preparing a legal case to contest the vote on behalf of the opposition leader.

Thousands of people gathered outside Maputo Wednesday to bury the lawyer, Elvino Dias, who was killed in an ambush on a car alongside opposition activist, Paulo Guambe.

Mondlane has accused the security forces of the attack and claimed he could be next. Police said they have launched an investigation into the killings, which Frelimo “vehemently” condemned as a “macabre act”.

Outgoing president Filipe Nyusi, 65, warned Wednesday that calls for violent protests could be considered criminal acts.

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“Inciting the population to revolt, misinforming the world and creating chaos for political purposes can be considered criminal acts,” said Nyusi, who has served a maximum two-term limit.

Police also called for calm on Wednesday, saying people should not allow themselves to be manipulated by “incendiary speeches and misinformation”.

Mondlane, a former radio presenter who has been able to attract younger voters in the destitute coastal country, was among a group of protesters tear gassed by police in a demonstration in the capital on Monday.

He has also accused security forces of wounding three people when they opened fire to disperse hundreds of his supporters in a protest in the northern city of Nampula on October 17.

Last year, several people were killed in clashes after Frelimo won municipal elections.

Election observers from the EU have raised concerns about the legitimacy of this month’s polls, noting “irregularities during counting and unjustified alteration of election results at polling station and district level”.

Chapo, a former provincial governor with no experience in national government, will be the first president not to have fought in the 1975-1992 civil war between Frelimo and Renamo, which claimed around a million lives.

Renamo’s leader Ossufo Momade, 63, took nearly six percent of the vote and Lutero Simango, 64, of the Mozambique Democratic Movement just over three percent, according to the commission.