Mozambique's President Guebuza and his Frelimo party wins elections

Nov 11, 2009, 16:45 GMT

Maputo - Mozambique's incumbent President Armando Guebuza and his ruling Frelimo party were on Wednesday confirmed the hands- down winners of national elections.

The final results were announced by the head of the CNE, Joao Leopoldo Da Costa, two weeks after the synchronized presidential, parliamentary and provincial assembly elections.

In the presidential election, Guebuza won 2,974,627 votes (75.4 per cent), ahead of 650,679 for his nearest rival, longtime opposition leader Afonso Dhlakama (16.5 per cent). Guebuza's share of the vote was up significantly from 2004, when he won with 64 per cent.

The mayor of Beira city, Daviz Simango, an ex-Renamo member who had been tipped as the possible runner-up in the presidential election, trailed Guebuza and Dhlakama in the final count, with only 340,579 votes, or 8.6 per cent.

Guebuza's ruling Frelimo party, in power in the south-east African country since 1975, also increased its dominance.

Frelimo won 75 per cent of the vote, giving it 191 seats in the 250-seat National Assembly, against 51 seats for Dhlakama's Renamo (17.7 per cent of the vote) and 8 seats for Simango's new Democratic Movement of Mozambique (3.9 per cent).

Going into the election, Frelimo had 190 seats and Renamo 60.

Some 44.6 per cent of the 10.3 million eligible voters cast their ballots on October 28.

The election was always expected to be a shoo-in for Guebuza and Frelimo, the party of liberation from Portuguese rule in 1975.

Renamo, which fought a 16-year civil war with Frelimo that ended in 1992, is still struggling to shake off its guerrilla image.

Once staunchly Marxist, Frelimo has embraced free-market policies in recent years and the country of around 20 million people, one of the world's poorest, has become one of Africa's success stories.

A surge of foreign investment in gas, coal, hydropower, mineral sands and other sectors has fuelled strong economic growth, which is expected to exceed 5 per cent this year.