Early signs in Mozambique’s general election point to young people turning out in large numbers to vote amid what was suggested to be a healthy turnout overall, as people choose the president who will succeed the outgoing Filipe Nyusi.
According to the Sala de Paz election observation group, polling stations were flooded with queues of voters when they opened at 7am this morning, although numbers died down by the early afternoon due to heat, before picking up again. A large turnout of young people was recorded, it added.
Zitamar News
Zitamar News has been providing running updates throughout the day on our Live Blog
Although a predominantly young electorate is not surprising in a country where most people are aged 25 and below, commentators before polling day had noted the strong support among young people attracted by Venâncio Mondlane, who is seeking to challenge the established political parties with his presidential bid.
Zitamar News reported yesterday that a high vote for Mondlane combined with dissatisfaction with ruling party Frelimo could potentially lead to no presidential candidate getting more than half the vote, which in turn could trigger an unprecedented second round of voting — subject to manipulation of the vote.
Fernando Lima
Voting delays
Voting has been slow and some opposition activists have been prevented from watching the vote, election observers noted today.
The More Integrity coalition of election observers said that in about 120 voting tables — where each voter casts all their votes and of which several are contained within a polling station — it had seen commotion caused by disorganised queues and delays to voting. Part of the reason, it said, was that this year, ballot papers have to be folded three times instead of two, since they are printed on both sides. Sala de Paz also said there had been delays at a minority of voting tables.
In the city and province of Maputo, Zitamar News noticed delays at several polling stations. Voters became angry at the time taken to process them and polling station staff appeared to be unfamiliar with the process of finding voters on the electoral roll.
