Mozambique: Ruling Party Wins In Election Marred By Killing Of Two Opposition Candidates (X image @placide_art)

The candidate of Mozambique’s ruling party won the election with huge majority. The election itself was controversial, as two of the opposition figures were killed by unknown gunmen. There were also allegations that the elections were rigged.

Daniel Chapo, candidate of the ruling party Fremilo, received 70.7 percentage. The party swiftly passed the 50 percentage mark required to avoid a second round of election.

Venâncio Mondlane came second out of the four candidates. He secured 20.3 percentage votes.

Last Saturday, Elvino Dias, an opposition lawyer who had been preparing a legal challenge to the results, and Paulo Guambe of Podemos party were killed. Podemos also support Mondlane, who was forced to contest the election as an independent, said The Guardian.

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Before the voting, civil society groups of the country accused Fremilo party of registering almost 900,000 fake voters, out of an electorate of 17 million. The party has ruled the country for nearly half a century.

Mozambique is one of the world’s poorest countries in the world. It is still recovering from the 2016 revelation that the government had taken out $2bn (£1.5m) in hidden corrupt loans. This led the IMF and other international and bilateral funders to pull financial support, sending the country’s economy to spiral down.

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Venâncio Mondlane, who is a former radio DJ, had appealed to young voters in Mozambique where the average age is under 18, and on Wednesday in Facebook videos he called for peaceful protests.

He said: “The time has come for the people to take power and say that we now want to change the history of this country. There won’t be enough bullets for everyone, there won’t be teargas for everyone, there won’t be enough armoured vehicles”.