Mozambique gears up for key vote

Campaigning for Mozambique’s presidential elections wrapped up with a rock-and-roll style rally to drum up enthusiasm for the ruling party’s candidate. Addressing a crowd of around 5,000 supporters at an open field in Maputo, Frelimo’s Filipe Nyusi promised jobs and economic opportunity, and vowed to fight graft in the country his party has governed for nearly four decades. Wednesday’s presidential, legislative and provincial election is being closely watched especially by foreign investors, as Mozambique stands on the cusp of reaping vast wealth from its nascent gas industry. Focus will be on whether the peace deal signed between the government and the former rebel group Renamo, to end a two-year conflict, will hold after the election.

I am the bee that will make honey for all!

Filipe Nyusi

The ruling party’s Nyusi, from the gas-rich Cabo Delgado province near Tanzania, told the rally that his name, in the local Makonde language from his far north region, translates to mean bee. The 55-year-old candidate, a former defence minister, is little known to the public, and represents a change of guard in a party ruled up to now by former fighters who led Mozambique to independence from Portugal in 1975. Frelimo is expected to win the election, but by a lower margin than the 75 per cent it gained at the last election in 2009. The opposition Movement Democratic Movement (MDM), a breakaway from Renamo, whose candidate Daviz Simango is running for president for the second time, made some surprising gains in last year’s municipal elections.

Africa