By Nellie Peyton and Manuel Mucari
MAPUTO (Reuters) -Mozambique voted in an election on Wednesday that is likely to deliver another victory for the ruling Frelimo party that has been in power in the southern African nation since 1975.
The favourite among four candidates vying to replace incumbent President Filipe Nyusi, as he steps down after serving two terms, is Daniel Chapo, 47, a lawyer viewed as a safe choice for business and a fresh face for the long-ruling party.
Frelimo first allowed elections in 1994 and has since been accused of rigging them, charges it denies. A rebel force turned opposition party, Renamo, usually comes a distant second place.
Counting will start after the polls close at 6 p.m. (1600 GMT), but official results can take up to two weeks.
Any disputed outcome could trigger protests similar to those which broke out after Frelimo swept last year’s municipal elections and which were forcefully suppressed.
However, election observers from the European Union said voting was peaceful and that no major issues had been observed so far, while the Mais Integridade civil society group said 90% of polling stations had opened on time.
Half of Mozambique’s 35 million people are registered to vote, with the big concerns being over high levels of poverty and an Islamist insurgency in the north that has forced thousands to flee their homes and halted multi-billion-dollar gas projects.
Accompanied by his wife, Chapo was among the first to cast his vote in a school in the coastal city of Inhambane.
“I want to say thank you to the people of Mozambique for this opportunity we have today,” he told reporters.
At a polling station in capital Maputo, Nyusi held up his hands in front of election commission workers before proceeding to cast his vote.
“I … hope that no group of citizens will threaten others. May everything proceed in peace and tranquillity,” he said.
But many feel the election will change little.
Keila Sitoe, 28, voted with her 21-year-old sister in Maputo. Both, who said they hoped for change but did not expect it, declined to reveal their picks.
“We don’t feel the energy. We are young and things are difficult,” said Sitoe.
In the city’s middle-class neighbourhood of Malhangalene, where independent candidate Venancio Mondlane lives, voter Rosa Tembe, a 72-year-old widow, hoped for peace in the country’s northern Cabo Delgado province.
“We will ask the person who wins to end the conflict in Cabo Delgado because our grandsons are dying … and we don’t want this to happen anymore,” she said.
(Additional reporting by Thando Hlophe, Sisipho Skweyiya and Siphiwe Sibeko; Writing by Nellie Peyton, Bhargav Acharya and Tannur Anders; Editing by Sandra Maler, Clarence Fernandez and Alison Williams)
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