Vote counting is underway as Mozambicans who voted on Wednesday await election results between a ruling party that has dominated their country’s political landscape for nearly 50 years and three political opponents.
More than 17 million people were registered to vote, though it is not clear how many of those registered voters actually voted.
Earlier in the day, lines formed in polling stations in various places as early as 7 a.m. with people eager to vote.
At a polling place at the Josina Machel secondary school in Maputo, 22-year-old first-time voter Augusto Paz said he waited about an hour, adding that “as a young Mozambican man, I feel like this is important because it might be the choice that would change things in our country. I am talking about health care, education and development in general.”
Sergio Pantie, a member of parliament and supporter of the ruling Frelimo party, said after casting his ballot that he’s confident that “people continue to love and highly consider Frelimo as an option to continue running this country. ... The results will prove, once again, that Frelimo is loved and esteemed by the Mozambican people.”
Whoever wins will inherit many challenges starting with the economy and debt repayments, said Aslak Ore, a researcher on Mozambique at the Christian Michelsen Institute in Norway.
The country’s external debt is “between $12 [billion] and 14 billion. ... Recently they have been able to pay back much of that debt, but they have done so by way of accumulating a lot of domestic debt,” Ore told VOA.
“The state takes up loans from the banking system and institutions locally, so they are accumulating debt at the same time as they are paying back the external debt.”
In addition to debt challenges, the government has been battling an insurgency in the gas- and oil-rich Cabo Delgado province, where about 4,000 people have been killed and about 1 million displaced since 2017, hindering multibillion-dollar oil and gas projects.
Some countries, including Rwanda, have stepped in recently to help quell the insurgency — an act that Adriano Nuvunga, a social activist and director of the Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Mozambique, strongly disagrees with.
“Mozambique, big as it is, massive as it is … 33 million people … but it needs to import soldiers from Rwanda to protect its sovereignty. … Rwanda, a tiny country of 13 million people, to protect us here.”
Ruling party candidate Chapo said if he wins, securing the Cabo Delgado area will be one of his top priorities because without security, there is no development, he recently told supporters.
Nuvunga said that while Frelimo was seen as a liberation movement 50 years ago, times have changed.
“The people here, they have nothing to do with what people did five decades ago. It’s about today; are you able to put in place credible policies and put in place a credible system of governance that would work for the people?” he said.
More than 400 international observers were present across Mozambique, including former St. Lucia Prime Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony, who heads the Commonwealth International Observers’ delegation, and arrived in Maputo a week ago.
He told VOA that in addition to visiting various polling stations throughout the day, he was grateful to witness the vote counting, which he says is key because “so many of the electoral challenges emerge from the counting process.”
