Mozambique headed for crucial elections amid jihadist insurgency and drought-induced hunger

MAPUTO, Mozambique (AP) — Mozambicans will vote this week for a new president who many hope will bring peace to an oil- and gas-rich northern province that has been ravaged by a jihadist insurgency for nearly seven years.

Close to 17 million voters will vote for the next president, alongside 250 members of parliament and provincial assemblies, on Wednesday. The current president, Filipe Nyusi, is ineligible to stand again after two terms of office.

During the six week campaign period, which ended Sunday, the frontrunners promised that violence in the north of the country will be their main priority, although none has laid out a plan to end it.

Mozambique has been fighting an Islamic State-affiliated group that has launched attacks on communities in the province of Cabo Delgado since 2017, including beheadings and other killings.

Some 1.3 million people were forced to flee their homes. Around 600,000 people have since returned home, many to shattered communities where houses, markets, churches, schools and health facilities have been destroyed, the United Nations refugee agency said earlier this year.

The candidates rounded off their campaigns on Sunday in the northern and central provinces, which are regarded as the highest-voting constituencies. They promised to address development issues exacerbated by the insurgency.

Daniel Chapo, the presidential candidate of Nyusi's ruling Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo), has been telling rallies that peace will allow Cabo Delgado to rebuild infrastructure.

“The first objective of governance is to work to end terrorism using all available means to return peace. Peace is the condition for development,” said Chapo at a rally last week in Pemba, the provincial capital of Cabo Delgado.

Frelimo, which has ruled the country since independence in 1975, is widely expected to win again.

Lutero Simango, the candidate of the Democratic Movement of Mozambique, spent most of his time campaigning in the central and northern regions, and made promises to remedy a lack of medicines in public hospitals, high unemployment and abject poverty.

Venacio Mondlane, who is running for president as an independent, has also promised to deal with the violence in the region.

“From the moment my government is in place, I can assure you that kidnappings happening in the country, including terrorism in Cabo Delgado, will be wiped out in one year," Mondlane said drawing wild cheers from his supporters.

Corruption and poverty have also been major campaign issues as the country grapples with high levels of unemployment and hunger that has been exacerbated by El Nino-induced severe drought.

According to the United Nations World Food Program, 1.3 million people in Mozambique are facing severe food shortages as a result of the drought.

The ruling Frelimo party has also been tainted by corruption scandals, including the so-called “tuna bond” scandal, which saw politicians jailed for taking payoffs to arrange secret loan guarantees for government-controlled fishing companies.

The loans were plundered, and Mozambique ended up with $2 billion in “hidden debt,” spurring a financial crisis as the International Monetary Fund halted financial support to the country.

The Southern African Development Community, a regional bloc of southern African nations, has sent a delegation of 52 election observers to the country. The observer mission on Friday called for the impartiality of the country's electoral bodies during the polls.

Local elections held in Mozambique last year were marred by wide-ranging allegations of vote-rigging and electoral fraud, sparking violent protests, after Frelimo won 64 of 65 municipalities. A consortium of election observers reported widespread ballot stuffing, voter intimidation and falsification of results in favor of Frelimo.

“The political parties already have their bases in the electorate and during the campaign we did not see anything different in relation to the previous elections. We would need something drastic to happen for Frelimo to lose these elections,” said political analyst Dercia Alfazema.

Borges Nhamire, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, said the eventual winner will inherit a country facing many problems.

“The president to be elected will find a very difficult situation because he is in transition during a period of war, and every transition that takes place during a period of war is very difficult," said Nhamire.

Magome reported from Johannesburg.

Follow AP's Africa coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/africa

Independent candidate Venacio Mondlane, atop truck, attends an election rally in Maputo, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024 ahead of elections to be held in Mozambique. (AP Photo/Carlos Uqueio)

A poster of independent candidate Venacio Mondlane is held at an election rally on Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024 in Maputo ahead of elections in Mozambique. (AP Photo/Carlos Uqueio)

A woman sits between bread rolls in Maputo, Mozambique, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024 ahead of elections to be held in the country. (AP Photo/Carlos Uqueio)

Supporters take part in a ruling party rally to support presidential candidate Daniel Chapo ahead of elections, in Maputo, Mozambique, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Carlos Uqueio)

Supporters take part in a ruling party rally for presidential candidate Daniel Chapo, centre, ahead of elections, in Maputo, Mozambique, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Carlos Uqueio)

A building displays ruling party posters in support of presidential candidate Daniel Chapo ahead of elections in Maputo, Mozambique, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Carlos Uqueio)

A pedestrian passes a wall of election posters in Maputo, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, ahead of elections to be held in Mozambique. (AP Photo/Carlos Uqueio)

The path for the NFL's Washington Commanders to return to the nation’s capital is clear after an on-again, off-again saga in Congress ended early Saturday with a postmidnight reprieve.

The U.S. Senate passed a resolution to transfer the land including old RFK Stadium from the federal government to the District of Columbia. The D.C. Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Campus Revitalization Act passed by voice vote at roughly 1:15 a.m. after more than a year of lobbying and support from Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., district Mayor Muriel Bowser, Commanders controlling owner Josh Harris and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

“We are extremely grateful that our elected officials have come together on a bipartisan basis to give Washington, D.C., the opportunity to decide on the future of the RFK Stadium site," Harris said. "This bill will create an equal playing field so that all potential future locations for the home of the Washington Commanders can be fairly considered and give our franchise the opportunity to provide the best experience for all of our fans.”

The RFK Stadium land provision was part of Congress’ initial short-term spending bill Tuesday before it was torpedoed by President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the latter of whom amplified misinformation about the site on his social media platform X. Two versions of the House's slimmed-down bill, including the one that passed Friday night to avoid a government shutdown, did not include it.

Giving the local government control of the land for the next 99 years allows for the decaying husk of the old stadium to be torn down and the site redeveloped for any number of things. One of the possibilities is a football stadium and surrounding entertainment options at the franchise's former home.

“We appreciate the bipartisan group of Congressional leaders who made this important breakthrough possible,” the NFL said in a statement. “Washington, D.C., will now have a long-overdue seat at the table when it comes to the location of a new Commanders stadium.”

Bowser called it “a win for D.C., for our region and for America.”

“Everybody loves a good comeback story — and that’s D.C.’s story,” she said.

All that awaits is President Joe Biden's signature to become law, which could come as soon as Saturday. Comer went as far as saying that Senate passage of the bill is “a historic moment for our nation's capital.”

“If Congress failed to act today, this decaying land in Washington would continue to cost taxpayers a fortune to maintain,” he said. “Revitalizing this RFK Memorial Stadium site has been a top economic priority for the city. ... This bipartisan success is a testament to the House Oversight Committee’s unwavering effort to protect taxpayers and our full commitment to ensuring a capital that is prosperous for residents and visitors for generations to come.”

Playing in Washington again is no sure thing. The Commanders are also considering other places in the district, Maryland and Virginia to build a stadium in the coming years.

Their lease at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland, runs through 2027. Harris called 2030 a “reasonable target” for a new stadium.

The team played at RFK Stadium 2 miles (3.22 kilometers) east of the Capitol from 1961-96 before moving to Maryland. Harris and several co-owners, including Mitch Rales and Mark Ein, grew up as Washington football fans during that era, which included the glory days of three Super Bowl championships from 1982-91.

Ein said on social media, “Still many steps to go and even bigger than a possible stadium last night’s bill was an extraordinary moment of bi-partisan and regional cooperation to do something big and important and get 174 acres of unused, blighted and critical land to DC so they can bring it back to life.”

Part of the way the provision got into the bill initially involved an agreement between the team and Maryland to tear down the current stadium in a timely fashion and redevelop the site with a project of equal economic impact, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press earlier this week on condition of anonymity because the deal was not being publicized.

After the Senate greenlit the RFK Stadium land transfer, Maryland Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, both Democrats, said they continued to believe their state's partnership with the team should continue long into the future.

“After working to level the financial playing field, and receiving assurances that should the team move they will redevelop the existing site in a manner that meets the needs of the community, tonight we supported the proposed land transfer legislation,” Cardin and Van Hollen said. "We have always supported the District’s effort to control its own land, and through regional discussions and cooperation, our concerns with this proposal have been addressed.”

The team has played games in Maryland since 1997 and practices in Ashburn, Virginia, not far from Dulles International Airport.

A return to the district would be another victory for Bowser, who on Thursday celebrated the start of an $800 million downtown arena renovation that is keeping the NBA's Wizards and NHL's Capitals in town. At that news conference, she took aim at Musk for sharing incorrect information on X, formerly Twitter, about taxpayers footing the bill for a new stadium.

The bill specifically prohibits the use of federal funds for a stadium on the site, “including training facilities, offices, and other structures necessary to support a stadium.”

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

FILE - A vehicle pushes up pikes of snow after trucks dump their loads of snow in the parking lots of RFK Stadium in Washington, Monday, Jan. 25, 2016. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)