Mozambique: Filipe Nyusi and his FRELIMO party re-elected in massive landslide

AFP | Mozambique’s incumbent President Filipe Nyusi has won re-election in a predictable landslide victory that will put him in office for a 2nd term of another 5 years.

The National Election Commission (CNE) announced Nyusi, 60, won the vote with an overwhelming majority of the votes.

“The ruling FRELIMO won the presidential, legislative and provincial elections,” CNE Chairman Abdul Carimo said at a press conference on Sunday.

“FRELIMO’s Filipe Nyusi won the presidential elections with 73 percent followed by RENAMO’s Ossufo Mamade with 21.8 percent of the votes”.

“MDM’s Daviz Simango came third with 0.73 percent of the votes while the fourth candidate Mário Albino garnered 0.73 percent of the votes cast,” added Carimo.

FRELIMO, which has ruled since independence from Portuguese in 1975, will have 184 seats, RENAMO 60 and MDM 6 seats in the next legislature.

Around 13 million of Mozambique’s 30 million citizens were registered to vote at more than 20,000 polling stations.

The ruling party’s popularity, however, has recently taken a hit from a financial crisis linked to alleged state corruption.

The October 15 vote was the 6th presidential and parliamentary elections since 1994. 26 parties took part. It was the first poll without the long-time opposition leader Afonso Dhlakama, who died last year. The vote verification process took place Friday evening.

Opposition parties RENAMO, Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) and civil society organizations have disputed the results citing irregularities in favor of the ruling party.