This week, Mozambicans will cast their ballots for a new president, whom many believe will restore peace to the country’s oil and gas-rich northern province, which has been devastated for almost seven years by a jihadist insurgency.
On Wednesday, around 17 million people will cast ballots to choose the next president, in addition to 250 members of the legislature and provincial legislatures. After serving two terms in office, the current president, Filipe Nyusi, is not eligible to run for office again.
The front-runners stated that addressing the violence in the country’s north would be their top priority throughout the six-week campaign period, which concluded on Sunday, but none of them have presented a strategy for doing so.
An Islamic State-affiliated organization has been attacking towns in the region of Cabo Delgado since Mozambique began fighting them since 2017, including beheadings and other killings.
Some 1.3 million individuals were forced to abandon their homes. According to information released earlier this year by the UN refugee agency, about 600,000 people have subsequently made their way back home, many to devastated villages where homes, marketplaces, churches, schools, and medical facilities have been destroyed.
Seen as the highest-voting areas, the candidates concluded their campaigns on Sunday in the northern and central provinces. They pledged to deal with problems with development that the insurgency had made worse.
At rallies, Nyusi’s ruling Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) presidential candidate Daniel Chapo has said that peace will enable Cabo Delgado to reconstruct its infrastructure.
“The first objective of governance is to work to end terrorism using all available means to return peace. The prerequisite for progress is peace, according to Chapo at a rally last week in Pemba, the provincial capital of Cabo Delgado.
Mozambique’s ruling party, Frelimo, is expected to win the upcoming elections. Lutero Simango, the Democratic Movement of Mozambique candidate, has campaigned in the central and northern regions, promising to address issues such as high unemployment, poverty, and lack of medicines in public hospitals. Venacio Mondlane, an independent presidential candidate, has also pledged to eradicate kidnappings and terrorism in the region.
Corruption and poverty have been major campaign issues, as the country grapples with high levels of unemployment and hunger, exacerbated by El Nino-induced severe drought. The United Nations World Food Program reports that 1.3 million people in Mozambique are facing severe food shortages due to the drought. The ruling Frelimo party has been tainted by corruption scandals, including the “tuna bond” scandal, which led to the plundered loans and $2 billion in hidden debt.
The Southern African Development Community has sent a delegation of 52 election observers to the country, calling for the impartiality of the country’s electoral bodies during the polls. Local elections in Mozambique last year were marred by allegations of vote-rigging and electoral fraud, sparking violent protests after Frelimo won 64 out of 65 municipalities.
Borges Nhamire, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, said the eventual winner will inherit a country facing many problems, as they are in transition during a period of war.
(Africanews)
