Long-ruling party leads in Mozambique's election as opposition candidate calls for strikes

MAPUTO, Mozambique — Mozambique's ruling party candidate held a clear lead in early presidential election results Wednesday as his main challenger said he would not accept them and called them fraudulent.

Daniel Chapo of the ruling Front for the Liberation of Mozambique, or Frelimo, is on course to win the vote, according to the provincial results, and succeed President Filipe Nyusi, who has served a maximum two terms. Frelimo has been in power in the southern African nation since independence from Portugal in 1975.

Opposition candidate Venancio Mondlane, who is running as an independent, was second behind Chapo in the early count but repeated his claims that last week's election was marred by fraud and manipulation by Frelimo.

Mondlane has also called on Mozambicans to hold a national strike on Monday in protest at what he called the “deceit of the most shameful level of the regime.”

Frelimo has often been accused of election rigging, which it denies. Many analysts raised concerns ahead of this election, saying Frelimo manipulates voter lists and traditionally has officials loyal to it working at polling stations.

Mondlane and his supporters held a march in the northern city of Nampula on Wednesday, which was broken up by police. Police said Mondlane did not keep to an agreed route for the march and also accused him of encouraging his supporters to confront officers. Four people were arrested, police said.

Frelimo has won every national election in Mozambique since the country's first in 1994. Frelimo came to power at independence but then fought a bloody 15-year civil war against rebel group Renamo, which later became the main opposition party and also contested this election.

Mondlane was a member of the Renamo party before breaking away months before the election and standing as an independent.