MOZAMBIQUE-ELECTION/CANDIDATES VOTE Mozambique's presidential candidates cast their votes
Record ID:
328346
MOZAMBIQUE-ELECTION/CANDIDATES VOTE Mozambique's presidential candidates cast their votes
- Title: MOZAMBIQUE-ELECTION/CANDIDATES VOTE Mozambique's presidential candidates cast their votes
- Date: 15th October 2014
- Summary: MAPUTO, MOZAMBIQUE (OCTOBER 15, 2014) (REUTERS) ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** VOTERS QUEUING OUTSIDE POLLING STATION (POLANA SECONDARY SCHOOL) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE FILIPE NYUSI WALKING TOWARDS POLLING STATION PEOPLE QUEUING NYUSI WALKING TOWARDS POLLING STATION PEOPLE QUEUING VARIOUS OF NYUSI STANDING NEAR BALLOT BOXES/MEDIA MEMBERS OF THE MEDIA NYUSI HOLDING BALLOT PAPER AND WALKING TO VOTING BOOTH NYUSI CASTING HIS VOTE IN BALLOT BOXES MEMBERS OF THE MEDIA NYUSI HOLDING UP HIS FINGER DIPPED IN INK TO SHOW HE HAS VOTED MEMBERS OF THE MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (Portuguese) FRELIMO PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, FILIPE NYUSI, SAYING: "Naturally, I am confident of winning. I guess you have seen the tireless and thorough work I have done. It is work done over the years. In the end, the result will be in favour of this candidate that you are seeing right here." VARIOUS OF RENAMO PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, AFONSO DHLAKAMA, ARRIVING AT POLLING STATION POLLING STATION EMPLOYEE HOLDING UP BALLOT PAPER AND GIVING IT TO DHLAKAMA/DHLAKAMA WALKING TOWARDS POLLING BOOTH POLLING STATION EMPLOYEE DHLAKAMA CASTING HIS VOTE IN BALLOT BOXES PEOPLE QUEUING OUTSIDE POLLING STATION DHLAKAMA HOLDING UP ID CARD VARIOUS OF NYUSI'S ID CARD VARIOUS OF PEOPLE QUEUING
- Embargoed: 30th October 2014 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Mozambique
- Country: Mozambique
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA9RQCC52JFJ45CLHHR15EGQMU0
- Story Text: The main contenders for Mozambique's presidential election cast their votes early in Maputo on Wednesday (October 15) in an election expected to return the ruling Frelimo party to power in one of Africa's fastest-growing economies, which is looking to escape years of poverty and conflict by tapping into its huge energy resources.
Frelimo is a former Marxist liberation movement that has ruled Mozambique since independence in 1975 and its presidential candidate, former defence minister Filipe Nyusi, campaigned hard to maintain the party's grip on power.
Nyusi said he was confident of victory.
"Naturally, I am confident of winning. I guess you have seen the tireless and thorough work I have done. It is work done over the years. In the end, the result will be in favour of this candidate that you are seeing right here," Nyusi told journalists after casting his vote.
However, he is facing a tough challenge from both the Renamo leader and former rebel chief Afonso Dhlakama and from a rising third force in the former Portuguese colony -- Daviz Simango and his Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM).
Renamo's Dhlakama and MDM's Simango concentrated their campaigns on attacking what they say is the stranglehold Frelimo has long maintained over political and economic power in Mozambique. They have promised more inclusive government.
Over the two years leading up to the vote, Dhlakama's armed Renamo partisans clashed sporadically with the army and police in the bush and ambushed traffic on a key north-south highway, frightening away tourists and triggering some concerns that Mozambique could slide back into a civil war.
The white-haired, bespectacled former guerrilla leader, who is 61, only emerged from a mountain hideout last month to ratify a deal with Guebuza reaffirming the 1992 peace pact that ended the civil war. He had previously accused the Frelimo government and military of trying to eliminate him.
If Frelimo's Nyusi, 55, fails to secure more than 50 percent of the total ballots, he will face a deciding second round run-off with his nearest contender in which the anti-Frelimo votes would be united against him.
More than 10 million voters were registered to take part in the elections for a new president, parliament and provincial assemblies. Foreign donors and investors hope the ballot will help to bury old animosities still lingering from a 1975-1992 civil war fought between Frelimo and its old foe Renamo.
Ordinary Mozambicans say they want whoever wins the vote to use the country's newly discovered resources of coal and natural gas to end poverty and inequality and to create more jobs.
The new president will oversee the bringing into production of large-scale offshore natural gas and oil projects in the north of Mozambique that are already being developed by investors from the West.
The election, the fifth presidential vote since a 1992 peace deal ended the civil war, is "the most competitive in the history of the country", John Stremlau, vice president of peace programmes at the Atlanta-based Carter Center, told Reuters.
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