Mozambique is voting for a new president, governors, and members of parliament as violence stalls natural gas projects that could give its economy a major boost.
The discovery of vast offshore gas deposits in the north in 2010 raised hopes of boosting government revenues.
But projects have been stalled since 2021 due to ongoing conflict in the northernmost Cabo Delgado province, which has been linked to Daesh terror group.
An estimated 17 million people in the southern African nation have registered to vote in polls opened at 0500 GMT and are scheduled to close at 1600 GMT on Wednesday. Results are expected around two weeks later.
The ruling socialist Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) is expected to win despite disillusionment with the party, which has held on to power since independence from Portugal half a century ago.
The candidates
If elected, Frelimo's relatively unknown candidate, 47-year-old Daniel Chapo will replace 65-year-old President Filipe Nyusi, who steps down after his two terms allowed under the constitution.
Chapo, a provincial governor, will compete with three other presidential candidates including Ossufo Momade, 63, an MP and leader of the main opposition party, Renamo.
Another contender is 50-year-old Venancio Mondlane, who lost a mayoral race in 2023 under Renamo's banner and claimed widespread electoral fraud.
Mondlane, popular among young voters, quit the party in June and joined forces with the smaller Optimistic Party for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos).
The other main candidate is Lutero Simango, 64, president of the centre-right Mozambique Democratic Movement and an outspoken critic of Frelimo.
Integrity of the election
Analysts have voiced concerns about the integrity of the election process after claims of widespread manipulation in previous votes.
In 2019, opposition parties disputed the results that gave Frelimo 73 percent, denouncing what they claimed was electoral fraud.
After municipal elections in 2023 were seen as fraudulent, protests erupted in major cities during which several people lost their lives in confrontations with the police.
"Nothing is going to change," said Domingos Do Rosario, a political science lecturer at Maputo's Eduardo Mondlane University, pointing to weak institutions and rife political bargaining.
Generational change
"The integrity of the electoral process is a serious problem," said researcher Borges Nhamirre from Pretoria's Institute for Security Studies.
Frelimo's decision to pick the relatively inexperienced Chapo as its candidate could be a strategy to influence his choice of appointees to key government positions, Nhamirre added.
Chapo's election would mark a generational change: he would be the first Mozambican president born after independence and the first not to have fought in the devastating 1975-1992 war between Frelimo and Renamo.
"We will continue to work so Mozambique stays a country of peace, including in Cabo Delgado," he said at Frelimo's final campaign rally on Sunday.
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