Presidential candidate Daniel Chapo and the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), the party supporting his candidacy, won the general elections held on the 9th in Nampula province, Mozambique’s largest constituency, the Provincial Elections Commission announced on Monday 14 October.
According to the results tabulation notice presented by Daniel Ramos, president of the Nampula Provincial Electoral Commission, Chapo won with 504,786 votes, corresponding to 59.58 per cent, followed by Venâncio Mondlane, supported by the extra-parliamentary Optimist Party for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos), with 216,826 votes (25.59 per cent).
In third place was Ossufo Momade, supported by the National Resistance of Mozambique (Renamo), the main opposition party, with 94,606 votes (11.97 per cent), and lastly Lutero Simango, supported by the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM), the third parliamentary party, with 31,070 votes, corresponding to 3.67 per cent.
Ramo described that in the vote for the legislative elections, in which 250 deputies are to be chosen (48 of whom will be elected from the Nampula constituency), the top four positions are occupied by Frelimo, with 466,542 votes (57.93%), Podemos, with 156,631 votes (19.04%), Renamo, with 106,649 votes (12.96%), and MDM, with 31,342 (3.86%).
‘In the provincial assemblies, where the winning candidate is elected provincial governor, Frelimo also leads with 59.11 per cent of the vote, followed by Podemos with 18.89 per cent, Renamo with 14.21 per cent and MDM with 3.97 per cent,’ he concluded.
The official stressed that the vote in Nampula province registered an abstention rate of around 80 per cent, with only 28.41 per cent of a total of just over 3.2 million registered voters casting their ballots.
Wednesday’s general elections included the seventh presidential elections – for which the current head of state, Filipe Nyusi, who has reached the constitutional limit of two terms, did not run – at the same time as the seventh legislative elections and the fourth elections for provincial assemblies and governors.
Running in this election for the Presidency of the Republic are Lutero Simango, supported by the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM, the third largest parliamentary force), Daniel Chapo, with the support of the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo, in power since 1975), Venâncio Mondlane, supported by the extra-parliamentary Podemos party, and Ossufo Momade, with the support of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo, the largest opposition party).
Publication of the presidential election results by the National Electoral Commission, if there is no second round, takes up to 15 days before they are validated by the Constitutional Council, which has no deadlines for proclaiming the official results after analysing any appeals.
The vote included legislative seats (250 deputies) and seats for provincial assemblies and their respective provincial governors, in this case with 794 mandates to be distributed. The CNE approved lists of 35 political parties running for the Assembly of the Republic and 14 political parties and groups of voting citizens for the provincial assemblies.
