Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
31 October 2009
Maputo — For Mozambique's ruling Frelimo Party, perhaps the sweetest moment in its landslide victory in Wednesday's general election came with the announcement of the results from the district of Maringue, in the central province of Sofala.
Maringue housed the headquarters of the apartheid-backed Renamo rebels in the closing years of the war of destabilisation. After the end of the war and its transformation into a political party, Renamo kept an iron grip on Maringue. In the first multi-party election, in 1994, Renamo refused to allow other parties, particularly Frelimo, to campaign in the district.
The result was that, in 1994, Frelimo won a derisory 156 votes in Maringue, while Renamo took 14,939. But now that free political activity, as well as economic development, has come to Maringue, the Renamo vote has collapsed.
On Wednesday, Frelimo candidate and incumbent president Armando Guebuza took 84 per cent of the vote. The final result from all 40 polling stations in Maringue district, announced by Radio Mozambique on Saturday, was as follows:
Presidential election
Daviz Simango (MDM): 225 Armando Guebuza (Frelimo): 11,056 Afonso Dhlakama (Renamo): 1,756
Parliamentary election
Frelimo: 10,971 Renamo: 1,769 MDM: 61
Other district and city results are now available. Thus the final result from Cuamba district, in the northern province of Niassa (128 polling stations) is:
Presidential election
Daviz Simango (MDM): 1,870 Armando Guebuza (Frelimo): 17,893 Afonso Dhlakama (Renamo): 3,113
Parliamentary election
Frelimo: 17,390 Renamo: 3,285 MDM: 1,212
This poor result will come as a bitter shock to the MDM. One of their best known candidates, Maria Moreno, the former head of the Renamo parliamentary group, who resigned from Renamo in May, lives in Cuamba. But whatever personal following Moreno has in Cuamba was not enough to save the MDM from a miserable vote.
In Mozambique Island, off the coast of Nampula province, Guebuza took over 80 per cent of the vote. The full results from the island's 33 polling stations were:
Presidential election
Daviz Simango (MDM): 281 Armando Guebuza (Frelimo): 13,441 Afonso Dhlakama (Renamo): 2,855
Parliamentary election
Frelimo: 13,101 Renamo: 2,951
In Morrupula district, also in Nampula (which happens to be Guebuza's birthplace), the results from the 78 polling stations were:
Presidential election
Daviz Simango (MDM): 983 Armando Guebuza (Frelimo): 11,477 Afonso Dhlakama (Renamo): 5,489
Parliamentary election
Frelimo: 12,539 Renamo: 5,579
The results from the 85 polling stations in the city of Pemba, capital of the northern province of Cabo Delgado were:
Presidential election
Daviz Simango (MDM): 2,978 Armando Guebuza (Frelimo): 20,588 Afonso Dhlakama (Renamo): 4,027
Parliamentary election
Frelimo: 25,032 Renamo: 4,480
The small district of Muanza in Sofala, once regarded, like Maringue, as a no-go area for Frelimo, now sees Frelimo collecting more than twice as many votes as Renamo. The results from the 18 Muanza polling stations were:
Presidential election
Daviz Simango (MDM): 135 Armando Guebuza (Frelimo): 3,940 Afonso Dhlakama (Renamo): 1,579
Parliamentary election
Frelimo: 3,943 Renamo: 1,500 MDM: 77
In the Frelimo stronghold of Manjacaze, in the southern province of Gaza, Guebuza scored a huge victory. The results from the 111 polling stations were:
Presidential election
Daviz Simango (MDM): 1,266 Armando Guebuza (Frelimo): 44,053 Afonso Dhlakama (Renamo): 634
Parliamentary election
Frelimo: 43,785 Renamo: 804
But a second Gaza district, Massingir, gave a peculiar result, with Frelimo and Guebuza taking almost 100 per cent of the vote. The 29 polling stations in Massingir gave the following results:
Presidential election
Daviz Simango (MDM): 71 Amando Guebuza (Frelimo): 12,535 Afonso Dhlakama (Renamo): 28
Parliamentary election
Frelimo: 12,527 Renamo: 54
Gaza is certainly overwhelmingly pro-Frelimo in its sympathies. But when support for the opposition drops as low as this, suspicions are bound to be raised. The details of each results sheet from Massingir are not yet available. Only a statistical analysis, polling station by polling station, will be able to indicate whether any fraud has indeed taken place.
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