Mozambique’s FRELIMO Candidate, Daniel Chapo, Declared Winner Of Presidential Election
Mozambique’s ruling party candidate, Daniel Chapo, has been declared the winner of the country’s 09 October presidential election amid opposition claims of rigging.
Chapo, from the FRELIMO party, which has been in power since 1975, when the country attained independence from Portugal, secured more than 70 per cent of the votes, the National Election Commission (CNE) said on Thursday. This comfortably cleared the 50% mark needed to avoid a second round.
Venâncio Mondlane, who had captured the imagination of many young voters and who claimed to have won the election, came second out of four candidates with 20.3%.
The candidate of the opposition party RENAMO, Ossufo Momade, came third with more than five per cent, according to the CNE.
Mondlane, 50, backed by the PODEMOS party, has claimed he won the vote, alleging electoral fraud and manipulation in favour of FRELIMO.
After the results were announced, Chapo told his supporters that he strongly condemned the recent murders of two opposition figures.
He also criticised the opposition’s strikes, which were meant to protest what they said was ongoing dishonesty.
This week, the police stopped the protests by using tear gas to disperse the crowds. Said Chapo:
As the FRELIMO party, we want to once again reiterate our repudiation of the murders of Elvino Dias and Paulo Guambe as well as other citizens physically affected in this ongoing process of demonstrations.
Elvino Dias, an opposition lawyer who had been preparing a legal challenge to the results, and Paulo Guambe, an official with the PODEMOS party, died in a hail of bullets in the early hours of last Saturday.
PODEMOS supported Mondlane, who had been forced to contest the election as an independent.
Chapo promised to “try to do better for the Mozambican people,” no matter their race, religion, or political beliefs.
The 47-year-old Chapo will officially become the president of Mozambique in January, making him the first president born after the country gained independence.
As the commission announced the election results, crowds of supporters for Mondlane gathered in various cities, including Maputo and Nampula, holding signs that read, “Tired of being the slaves of thieves.”
Police blocked their way into central Maputo and used tear gas to disperse protesters who were burning tyres and tearing down election posters.
Other protesters attempted to block the road from the capital to the South African border.
Clashes with police resulted in several injuries across the country, with one reported death in Nampula. Since voting day, Mondlane has called for protests on social media.
Local and international election observers said the vote count was falsified. Mozambique’s Catholic bishops claimed there was ballot stuffing, while EU observers reported “irregularities during counting and unjustified changes to the election results.”
Mozambique is one of the poorest countries in the world and is still recovering from a scandal in 2016 when it was revealed that the government had secretly borrowed $2 billion (£1.5 million) in corrupt loans.
This led the IMF and other financial supporters to stop their assistance, causing the economy to suffer greatly.
Current President Filipe Nyusi of Frelimo is resigning after completing two terms, the maximum permitted.
More: Pindula News
