By Nellie Peyton
MAPUTO (Reuters) -Mozambicans started voting on Wednesday in a tense general election highly likely to deliver victory for the ruling party, Frelimo, which has governed the southern African nation since 1975.
Poverty is the major concern of Mozambique’s 35 million people, half of whom are registered to vote, along with an Islamist insurgency in the north that has forced thousands to flee their homes and halted multi-billion-dollar gas projects.
Among those who braved early morning rain to queue in the hallway of a school in Maputo, the capital, ready to cast their votes was 22-year-old student Augusto Ndeve Pais.
“I feel hopeful … People my age are worried about the future of our country, so I think they will vote,” Pais said, declining to say for whom he was voting.
Counting will start after the polls close at 6 p.m. (1600 GMT), but official results can take up to two weeks.
The favourite among four candidates vying to replace 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.
He faces off against Venancio Mondlane, a charismatic independent candidate who draws huge crowds, former rebel commander Ossufo Momade, and a small opposition party leader, Lutero Simango.
Dozens of posters with Chapo’s likeness lined Maputo’s seaside promenade under palm trees, and red Frelimo flags flew over streets flanked by high-rises beside Portuguese colonial buildings, but no opposition poster was in sight.
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.
Mondlane poses a challenge to both this year, but lacks the machinery of established parties and may struggle to win votes in rural areas, analyst Dercio Alfazema said.
“This election is different because we have new actors … (but) Frelimo has a big probability to win,” Alfazema said.
Chapo has experience in local government but has not been tainted by Frelimo’s corruption scandals, he added.
A disputed outcome would probably trigger protests similar to, those which broke out after Frelimo swept last year’s municipal elections and were forcefully suppressed.
Apathy may dampen them, however.
Keila Sitoe, 28, voted with her 21-year-old sister. Both, who say they hope for change but do not expect it, declined to reveal their picks.
“We don’t feel the energy. We are young and things are difficult,” Sitoe, who is also a student, said after voting in the school, expressing doubt that anything would improve.
“Every time they say they will change,” she added.
(Reporting by Nellie Peyton and Manuel Mucari; Additional reporting by Thando Hlophe and Sisipho Skweyiya; Writing by Nellie Peyton and Bhargav Acharya;Editing by Sandra Maler and Clarence Fernandez)
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