Daniel Chapo of Mozambique’s long-time ruling party Frelimo was sworn in as president on Wednesday in a sparsely attended ceremony after months of protests against his election victory.
A local community watchdog says more than 300 people have been killed in clashes with security forces since the Oct. 9, the opposition party says Frelimo won by rigging the votes and Western observers say it was unfair.
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Frelimo denies allegations of electoral fraud.
It has ruled Mozambique since the end of the war against Portuguese colonial rule in 1975, holding on throughout a 15-year civil war that killed a million people before ending the truce in 1992.
Chapo told a group of around 1,500 supporters on stage in the capital Maputo that social and political stability will be his government’s priority.
Daniel Chapo of Mozambique’s long-ruling Frelimo party was sworn in as president on Wednesday (January 15) in a sparsely attended ceremony after months of protests against his election victory. (Reuters)
He also promised to reduce the size of the government by reducing the number of ministers, fighting youth unemployment and prioritizing health and education.
The city center was full of people as there were many police and soldiers, Reuters witnesses said.
Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of neighboring South Africa, was one of the few heads of state who attended Chapo’s inauguration.
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Opposition leader Venancio Mondlane, who came second to Chapo in the presidential election, returned from exile last week and has urged his supporters to continue protesting.
The post-election protests are the largest anti-Frelimo in Mozambique’s history and have affected foreign businesses operating in the resource-rich southern African country of 35 million people. They also disrupted cross-border trade, forcing some to flee to neighboring countries.
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