Mozambique vote 'generally fair', observers say

Observers for the Southern African Development Community, SADC, have declared Mozambique's national elections free and fair.

This comes a day after the main opposition Renamo party rejected provisional results.

The SADC say last Wednesday's presidential and legislative elections were generally peaceful, transparent, free, fair and credible.

The ruling Frelimo party earlier said that it would rely on observers to validate the elections in the face of Renamo crying foul over partial results which put Frelimo ahead.

Early tallies and projections showed Frelimo's candidate Filipe Nyusi headed for victory with around 60% of the vote while Renamo's Afonso Dhlakama was struggling to win 30%.

Renamo said the vote had been seriously flawed and claimed that Mr Dhlakama had won outright, raising the spectre of post-election violence.

News 24