Mozambique FRELIMO party to win elections, partial results indicate

November 1, 2009 Partial results from Mozambique's Wednesday elections indicate that the incumbent FRELIMO, or the Mozambican Liberation Front party, will win around three-quarters of the votes, giving it a comfortable victory.

Preliminary results released by the National Electoral Commission indicated that Armando Guebuza, the president of Mozambique, has 74% of votes in the presidential elections, or 536,440 votes, according to results based on 18% of polling stations.

The opposition candidate Daviz Simango, who is the mayor of the city of Beira, came in a distant second, with 17%, or 121,543 votes. Another opposition party candidate, Afonso Dhlakama, trailed in third place, having 9%, or 64,893 votes.

In the parliamentary elections, Frelimo will win 192 of 248 seats, according to preliminary results. The figure is expected to be about 30 seats more than in the last elections.

No official figures for voter turnout have yet been released, but estimates suggest that the numbers are higher than in the last elections, held in 2004, when 36% of eligible voters cast their ballots.