Mozambique’s ruling party wins vote tainted by fraud claims

Daniel Chapo got 70.67% of the vote, while his party won 195 of the 250 seats in parliament, the electoral commission said.

Mozambique’s ruling-party candidate was declared the runaway winner of presidential elections as tensions over fraud claims put the southeast African nation on edge and sent its bonds plunging.

Daniel Chapo got 70.67% of the vote, while his party won 195 of the 250 seats in parliament, the electoral commission said Thursday. Venâncio Mondlane, a charismatic independent candidate who has rejected the process and outcome as rigged and called for a two-day national shutdown, finished second with 20.32%.

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The results were announced by Carlos Matsinhe, president of the National Electoral Commission, in Maputo, the capital, where protests erupted and continued into the night.

The ruling Mozambican Liberation Front picked Chapo, 47, who studied law and is the former governor of the central Inhambane province but has never served in the national government, as its surprise candidate in May.

His victory signals political continuity for Mozambique as TotalEnergies SE prepares to resume a $20 billion liquefied natural gas project that insurgent attacks forced it to halt in early 2021, although allegations of vote tampering and Mondlane’s rejection of the results raise the risk of civil unrest.

The tallies announced by the electoral commission were “totally absurd” and Chapo’s party won’t be able to govern, Mondlane said in a livestream on his Facebook account late Thursday. “We absolutely reject the results presented.”

Maputo-based broadcaster TV Sucesso showed scenes of burning tires and said the main routes into the city were blocked. It also reported there had been an unspecified number of deaths.

Tensions surged after unidentified gunmen killed the opposition leader’s legal adviser and another of its officials at the weekend. On Wednesday, Mondlane revealed that he’d left his home after receiving intelligence that he was an assassination target and was at an undisclosed location in Maputo. He didn’t provide evidence.

Earlier this week, the opposition leader said there was a “revolutionary atmosphere” in Mozambique and urged supporters to demonstrate peacefully in the streets. The police warned citizens against in participating in illegal protests.

Mozambique’s $900 million of bonds due 2031 slumped the most in more than two years. They fell as much as 2.7% to 83.62 cents on the dollar, making them the worst performers in emerging markets Thursday.

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“Election unrest in Mozambique can only mean one thing for the country’s planned gas-energy infrastructure, namely delays,” said Florence Schmit, a European energy strategist at Rabobank. “The restarting of TotalEnergies Mozambique LNG project hinges on a smooth presidential transition.”

European Union observers and others who monitored the vote have flagged irregularities, including indications of ballot-box stuffing and the “unjustified alteration” of results. They complained that staff were blocked from observing the tallying in some areas, as well as at national level.

A national group of Catholic bishops said there was “grand fraud” and that the lowest voter turnout in Mozambique’s history indicated people had lost faith in the electoral process. The electoral commission has said aggrieved parties should approach the courts and present evidence of irregularities.

The southeast African nation, where the median age is about 17, is one of the world’s least-developed. Almost three-quarters of its 35 million people live on less than $2.15 per day, according to the World Bank. One in three young people aren’t working or studying, government data shows.

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