President Filipe Nyusi and the ruling Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) are poised for a landslide victory in this week’s general election, provisional results from the country’s electoral commission suggest Friday.
According to the Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE), Nyusi has established what it called an unassailable lead following the completion of vote counting in the three decisivie provinces of Gaza, Inhambane and Sofala.
The results show that Nyusi had won at least 70 percent of the vote in the three provinces compared to his main opposition rival Ossufo Momade of Mozambique National Resistance (RENAMO) who is projected to have won just 21 percent of the valid ballots cast.
The leader of the smaller Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), Daviz Simango, was a distant third at seven percent while little-known Mario Albino of the Action Party of the United Movement for Integral Salvation (AMUSI) polled less than one percent of the vote.
With regard to parliamentary elections, Nyusi’s ruling FRELIMO has also taken a commanding lead in most provinces and looks set to choose the bulk of the provincial governors, including in Momade’s home province of Nampula.
The result is unclear in another poll battleground, Zambezia province, where vote counting was still in progress as of late Thursday.
Renamo is boycotting all district vote tabulations, and has ordered its agents not to participate in any way in those counts.
Although data from only a minority of polling stations has been processed so far, the sample is large enough to suggest that the lead established by Nyusi and Frelimo cannot be overturned.
Average turnout in the three provinces was 55 percent, STAE said.
CM/jn/APA