MAPUTO : Mozambique Voting
Mozambique holds its first democratic election Thursday and Friday, giving the war-ravaged country a chance for long-lasting peace. The United Nations, which is supervising the vote, hopes to recoup its record in Africa after recent debacles in Angola, Somalia and Rwanda.
President Joaquim Chissano’s ruling Frelimo party, which has governed since the southeast African nation won independence from Portugal in 1975, is expected to win the poll for Parliament and president. But Chissano is under pressure to give former guerrilla chief Afonso Dhlakama a prominent role in the new government.
The election completes a process begun two years ago when Chissano’s formerly Marxist government and Dhlakama’s rightist Renamo rebel movement signed a peace plan mediated by U.N. officials to end a 16-year civil war that killed an estimated 600,000 people.
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