Mozambique gears up for key elections

Campaigning for Mozambique's presidential elections wrapped up Sunday with a rock-and-roll rally to drum up enthusiasm for the ruling party's first post-colonial candidate.

Addressing a crowd of around 5,000 supporters at an open field in Maputo, Frelimo's Filipe Nyusi promised jobs and economic opportunity, and vowed to fight graft in the country his party has governed for nearly four decades. Wednesday's presidential and legislative election is being closely watched, especially by foreign investors, as Mozambique stands on the cusp of reaping vast wealth from its nascent gas industry.

Nyusi, from the gas-rich Cabo Delgado province near Tanzania, told the rally that his name, in the local Makonde language from his far north region, translates to mean bee.

The 55-year-old candidate, a former defence minister, is little known to the public, and represents a change of guard in a party ruled up to now by former fighters who led Mozambique to independence from Portugal in 1975. He also pledged to improve the qualify of life for Mozambicans, most of whom scrape by on barely a dollar a day.
 
Frelimo and its candidate are expected to win the election, but with a lower margin compared to the 75 percent it gained in the last election in 2009. The opposition Movement Democratic Movement (MDM), whose candidate Daviz Simango is running for president for the second time, made some surprising gains in last year's municipal elections.
 
Former rebel leader Afonso Dhlakama, a better known figure, has also been attracting huge crowds in his populist campaign. On Sunday he addressed a full-capacity crowd in the most populous province of Nampula in the north.