Mozambique's ruling Frelimo party has elected Daniel Chapo, a relatively unknown regional governor, as its new leader and will succeed President Filipe Nyusi if the party wins this year's elections.
Mozambique's ruling Frelimo party has elected Daniel Chapo, a relatively unknown regional governor, as its new leader and will succeed President Filipe Nyusi if the party wins this year's elections.
Frelimo's central committee elected Chapo over three other internal candidates in a surprise late Sunday after three days of bitter wrangling, mass defacement of ballot papers and the withdrawal of his closest rival. did.
Chapo, a former academic and journalist, has been governor of central Inhambane province since 2016.
The 47-year-old was recommended by Frelimo as a youthful candidate who could attract younger voters to a party that has been in power for nearly 50 years.
His selection as Frelimo leader came after internal struggles between the party's factions, particularly between Nyusi's supporters and those of his predecessor, president and leader Armando Guebuza.
“With the selection of a presidential candidate, Frelimo has taken an important step towards preparing for victory in the October elections,” Nyusi said Sunday night at the end of an extraordinary party congress near the capital Maputo.
Frelimo has won every national election since the end of the country's war of independence from Portugal in 1975 and controls the majority of local governments.
The main opposition party, Renamo, has accused recent national and local elections of fraud.
Nyusi, 65, is blocked by the constitution from being re-elected for a third term when Mozambicans vote on October 9 to elect the president, parliament and state authorities.
Last Sunday, the president called on the divided Frelimo after an internal election in which Chapo's closest rival, Roque Silva, withdrew from the race at the last minute and resigned as Frelimo's secretary general. He urged them to “give Daniel Chapo our full support.”
After receiving 103 votes in the first round, Chapo won in the second round with 225 out of 240 votes.
A former political science lecturer and radio presenter with a law degree, he is the first Frelimo presidential candidate to emerge after Mozambique's independence from Portugal. All four presidents since 1975 have been veterans of the Frelimo independence struggle.
The party convention was marked by reports of intra-party conflict and disagreements.
Silva, who is rumored to be Nyusi's favorite candidate, resigned during the debate after failing to garner enough votes.
After Sunday's election, Mr. Chapo vowed to reporters to become a unified candidate.
“We will work with all segments of society: youth, women, men and veterans,” he said.
Frelimo won a landslide victory in the last general election held in 2019, but the main opposition party, Renamo, a former rebel group, contested the election.
After independence, Renamo and Frelimo fought a civil war from 1977 to 1992 that devastated Mozambique's economy and killed around 1 million people.
In October last year, at least two people were killed when police fired on demonstrators in several cities over the results of local elections.
Renamo called for protests after Frelimo was declared the winner in 64 out of 65 municipalities.
Mozambique ranks seventh from the bottom in the Human Development Index of 191 countries compiled by the United Nations Development Programme.
The company had high hopes for the vast natural gas deposit discovered in northern Cabo Delgado in 2010, the largest ever discovered south of the Sahara.
However, progress has stalled due to an insurgency in the region by armed groups linked to the Islamic State group. —AFP
