Mozambique has elected Filipe Nyusi of the governing Frelimo party as the next president, the National Electoral Commission said Thursday in announcing final results of polls two weeks ago. The former defence minister won 57 percent of the vote in the southern African nation - sharply down on Frelimo's 75 percent victory in the last presidential election in 2009.
Nyusi's nearest rival, Afonso Dhlakama of the former rebel Renamo party, garnered 37 percent of the votes - more than double the 16 percent he won in 2009.
Incumbent President Armando Guebuza, who was constitutionally barred from seeking re-election to a third term, will hand over early next year to Nyusi, 55, who will steer the country as it starts to tap vast natural gas resources recently discovered in the north.
Frelimo, which has ruled the former Portuguese colony since independence nearly 40 years ago, also won the majority of seats in parliament, taking 144 to Renamo's 89. A new party, the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) gained 17 seats. The elections took place against a backdrop of rising discontent, with rapid economic growth failing to benefit the bulk of the population.
Renamo and Frelimo fought a 16-year civil war that ended with a peace deal in 1992, but Dhlakama took to the bush again in late 2012 as his supporters waged a new low-level insurgency.
He emerged from his mountain hideout just weeks ahead of the vote to sign a peace deal with the Frelimo government.
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