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MAPUTO. — Filipe Nyusi of the governing Frelimo party has been elected Mozambique’s next president, the National Electoral Commission said yesterday, giving final results.
The commission reported a victory for the former defence minister, who garnered 57 percent of the vote, in presidential and legislative elections two weeks ago.
Nyusi’s nearest rival, Afonso Dhlakama of the former rebel Renamo party, won 37 percent – well up on the 16 percent he won in 2009.
President Armando Guebuza was constitutionally barred from seeking re-election for a third term.
He won 75 percent in the previous election five years ago.
Guebuza will hand over power early next year to President-elect Nyusi (55), who will steer the country as it starts to tap vast natural gas resources recently discovered in the north.
Frelimo, which has ruled the former Portuguese colony since independence nearly 40 years ago, also won the majority of seats in parliament.
Renamo and Frelimo waged a 16-year civil war that ended with a peace deal in 1992, but Dhlakama took to the bush again in late 2012 as his supporters waged a new low-level insurgency.
He emerged from his mountain hideout just weeks ahead of the vote to sign a peace deal with the Frelimo government.
Dhlakama has accused Frelimo of rigging the polls, but has ruled out a return to violence – a reassurance for investors interested in Mozambique’s new mineral wealth.
The elections saw isolated outbreaks of violence in parts of the vast country of 24.5 million, while foreign observers voiced concern over alleged irregularities in the counting of votes. — AFP
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