MAPUTO - Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo party has chosen a relatively unknown regional governor, Daniel Chapo, as its new leader, making him the successor to president Filipe Nyusi if the party wins this year’s elections. Frelimo’s central committee elected Chapo over three other internal candidates,in a surprise move late on Sunday that followed three days of intense wrangling, a high number of spoiled ballot papers and the withdrawal of his closest rival.

Chapo, a former academic and journalist, has been governor of the central province of Inhambane since 2016. At 47, he is presented by Frelimo as a youthful candidate who could attract young voters to the party, which has been in power for nearly five decades. His election as Frelimo leader follows an internal struggle between factions of the party, notably between supporters of Nyusi and those of his predecessor as president and party leader, Armando Guebuza. “With the election of its candidate for president, Frelimo took an important step to prepare for victory in the October elections,” Nyusi said on Sunday night at the end of an extraordinary party congress near the capital Maputo. Frelimo has won every national election since the end of the war for independence from Portugal in 1975, and also controls a large majority of local authorities. The main opposition party, Renamo, accuses it of rigging recent national and local elections. Nyusi, 65, is prevented by the constitution from seeking a third term when Mozambicans vote on 9 October to choose their president, parliament and provincial authorities. 

- Nampa/AFP