A woman with a child on her back casts her vote at a polling station as the country goes to the polls in Maputo
Mozambicans formed long lines outside polling stations to vote in elections that will test the durability of a peace deal signed last month to end almost two years of sporadic conflict between government troops and opposition militiamen.
The Mozambican National Resistance, known as Renamo, resumed attacks in 2012 after accusing the ruling Front for the Liberation of Mozambique, or Frelimo, of violating a 1992 accord that ended a 17-year civil war.
“If the election will be free and fair, I’ll be the first to recognize it,” Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama said after voting at a school in Maputo, the capital. “I hope it will be the first time in Mozambique that the results will be acceptable. We will see. People want change, above all the youth.”
Defense Minister Filipe Nyusi, 55, is Frelimo’s presidential candidate and frontrunner to succeed Guebuza, who’s stepping down after serving a maximum two terms. The post is also being contested by Dhlakama, 61, and Daviz Simango, 50, who heads the Mozambique Democratic Movement and is mayor of Beira, the second-largest city.
“Violence is a worry for us,” Teles Ribeiro, a researcher at the Center for Public Integrity in Maputo, said by phone Tuesday. “It is a possibility. Renamo are still armed.”
Guebuza voted at a school in Maputo shortly after polls opened at 7 a.m. local time. Balloting proceeded slowly and calmly at several other polling stations in the city, home to 708,812 of the almost 10.9 million registered voters.
“Everything is on track,” Paulo Cuinica, a spokesman for the National Electoral Commission, said by phone from Maputo.
More than 4,000 local observers and as many as 500 international monitors are overseeing the election. While voting is due to end at 6 p.m. local time, all those in line before the deadline will be allowed to cast ballots.
“There were no problems,” said nurse Lucia Mustafa, who waited in line for about 90 minutes before casting her two ballot papers and dipping her index finger in indelible ink. “Everything is going smoothly.” Mike Cohen and Tom Bowker, Bloomberg
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