Mozambique kicks off campaigning for October elections

 

Campaigning began in Mozambique on Saturday, six weeks before the southern African nation goes to the polls in a general election.

Voters will cast ballots for president, parliament and regional authorities in the October 9 poll, in which current 69-year-old President Filipe Nyusi cannot stand for another term.

His ruling Frelimo party has won every national election in the country since the end of a brutal civil war it fought with Renamo, the main opposition and a former rebel group. Frelimo also controls an overwhelming majority of local authorities.

The presidential contest will see the ruling party's Daniel Chapo, a 47-year-old provincial governor, face off against Renamo's Ossufo Momade, 63.

The other two candidates for president are Lutero Simango, 64, from the country's second opposition party Democratic Movement of Mozambique, and former Renamo member Venancio Mondlane, 50, who is running as an independent.

Electoral Commission president Carlos Matsinhe on Friday called for a peaceful campaign, urging candidates to refrain from inciting hatred.

"We must avoid physical violence and other forms of injustice because all candidates are fellow countrymen and only occasional opponents," said Matsinhe, who is an Anglican bishop.

In October, at least two people were killed in protests over the results of local elections, which saw police open fire on demonstrators in several cities.

Renamo called the protests after Frelimo was declared the winner in 64 of 65 local authorities, crying fraud and claiming it had triumphed in the capital Maputo.

Renamo has never won a national election since the end of the war for independence from Portugal in 1975.

The electoral commission approved the candidate lists of 35 political parties running for parliament and 14 parties and citizens' groups standing for local authorities.

Fought between Renamo and Frelimo, Mozambique's civil war lasted from 1977 to 1992, devastating the economy and leaving nearly one million people dead.

The country ranks seventh from bottom on the 191-nation Human Development Index compiled by the United Nations Development Programme.