When Daniel Chapo takes the oath of office Wednesday, the new Mozambican president will have to quickly find a way to quell deadly protests around the election, which his rivals say was stolen.Until his Frelimo party tapped him as its candidate in the October polls, Chapo was a little-known provincial governor with no national experience.At 48, he’ll become the first president younger than his nation. Officially he won 65 percent of the vote but opposition candidate Venancio Mondlane insists the vote was rigged. Frelimo, once a Marxist party, has ruled since the Portuguese colonisers left in 1975. It has survived one of the world’s most brutal civil wars, repeated claims of election fraud, and a financial scandal that tanked the economy.Chapo now faces a young population, furious that they remain among the poorest in the world while his party’s leaders have gathered jaw-dropping wealth. In 2020, Mozambique attracted Africa’s single largest foreign investment in offshore gas fields. Rather than ease poverty, ordinary Mozambicans have got poorer.That resentment helped fuel the unrest since the October election. Some 300 people have died, including many opposition protesters killed by security forces, according to a local NGO.- Juggling crises -Tall and slim, Chapo will succeed President Filipe Nyusi, who is at his two-term limit.Chapo will also be the country’s first president not to have been a Frelimo fighter during the independence struggle, or an ensuing 16-year civil war that claimed a million lives.However, he does have experience in local government in the town of Palma, home to the natural gas find, where fighters who claim links to the Islamic State have waged deadly attacks since 2017.Opposition leader Mondlane has called for three days of protests up to the inauguration Wednesday. Chapo has repeatedly said that he’s ready to talk with “everyone” and the coming days will show what he means by that.He’s already juggling multiple crises, flying this week to the north of the country, where Cyclone Chido last month killed 120 people and Cyclone Dikeledi hit this week.A fresh face meant to capture the support of disenchanted youth, Chapo was likely the pick of former Mozambican presidents Armando Guebuza and Joaquim Chissano, and not so much his predecessor Nyusi, analysts say. “There’s not a lot of love between Chapo and Nyusi,” Maputo-based political and security risk analyst Johann Smith told AFP.- Fighting terrorism -A balding former political science lecturer, Chapo has a law degree and has worked as a radio presenter. Chapo made thwarting attacks in Cabo Delgado one of his campaign promises. That conflict has displaced more than a million people and killed over 5,800. The French giant TotalEnergies has frozen one of its projects, jeopardising the future of the gas fields.”We will continue to work so Mozambique stays a country of peace, including in Cabo Delgado,” he said at the final rally. “We want to continue fighting against terrorism.”Chapo, who was appointed governor of the southern province of Inhambane in 2016, also promised the construction of schools and hospitals and a more robust economy.He presented himself as the candidate of unity, promising to “work with every layer of society, youth, women, men and veterans.”
Wed, 15 Jan 2025 06:20:56 GMT
