Mozambique headed for crucial elections amid jihadist insurgency and drought-induced hunger

Mozambicans will vote this week for a new president who many hope will bring peace to an oil- and gas-rich northern province that has been ravaged by a jihadist insurgency for nearly seven years.

Close to 17 million voters will vote for the next president, alongside 250 members of parliament and provincial assemblies, on Wednesday. The current president, Filipe Nyusi, is ineligible to stand again after two terms of office.

During the six-week campaign period, which ended Sunday, the frontrunners promised that violence in the north of the country would be their main priority, although none has laid out a plan to end it.

Mozambique has been fighting an Islamic State-affiliated group that has launched attacks on communities in the province of Cabo Delgado since 2017, including beheadings and other killings.

Some 1.3 million people were forced to flee their homes. Around 600,000 people have since returned home, many to shattered communities where houses, markets, churches, schools and health facilities have been destroyed, the United Nations refugee agency said earlier this year.

The candidates rounded off their campaigns on Sunday in the northern and central provinces, which are regarded as the highest-voting constituencies. They promised to address development issues exacerbated by the insurgency.

Daniel Chapo, the presidential candidate of Nyusi's ruling Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo), has been telling rallies that peace will allow Cabo Delgado to rebuild infrastructure.

“The first objective of governance is to work to end terrorism using all available means to return peace. Peace is the condition for development,” said Chapo at a rally last week in Pemba, the provincial capital of Cabo Delgado.

Frelimo, which has ruled the country since independence in 1975, is widely expected to win again.

Lutero Simango, the candidate of the Democratic Movement of Mozambique, spent most of his time campaigning in the central and northern regions and made promises to remedy a lack of medicines in public hospitals, high unemployment and abject poverty.

Venacio Mondlane, who is running for president as an independent, has also promised to deal with the violence in the region.

“From the moment my government is in place, I can assure you that kidnappings happening in the country, including terrorism in Cabo Delgado, will be wiped out in one year," Mondlane said drawing wild cheers from his supporters.

Corruption and poverty have also been major campaign issues as the country grapples with high levels of unemployment and hunger that has been exacerbated by El Nino-induced severe drought.

According to the United Nations World Food Program, 1.3 million people in Mozambique are facing severe food shortages as a result of the drought.

The ruling Frelimo party has also been tainted by corruption scandals, including the so-called “tuna bond” scandal, which saw politicians jailed for taking payoffs to arrange secret loan guarantees for government-controlled fishing companies.

The loans were plundered, and Mozambique ended up with $2 billion in “hidden debt,” spurring a financial crisis as the International Monetary Fund halted financial support to the country.

The Southern African Development Community, a regional bloc of southern African nations, has sent a delegation of 52 election observers to the country. The observer mission on Friday called for the impartiality of the country's electoral bodies during the polls.

Local elections held in Mozambique last year were marred by wide-ranging allegations of vote-rigging and electoral fraud, sparking violent protests after Frelimo won 64 of 65 municipalities. A consortium of election observers reported widespread ballot stuffing, voter intimidation and falsification of results in favour of Frelimo.

“The political parties already have their bases in the electorate and during the campaign, we did not see anything different in relation to the previous elections. We would need something drastic to happen for Frelimo to lose these elections,” said political analyst Dercia Alfazema.

Borges Nhamire, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, said the eventual winner will inherit a country facing many problems.

“The president to be elected will find a very difficult situation because he is in transition during a period of war, and every transition that takes place during a period of war is very difficult," said Nhamire.