Mozambique's highest court confirms ruling party election victory

MAPUTO - Mozambique's Constitutional Council, the nation's highest court, confirmed Monday the disputed October election results that extended the ruling Frelimo party's half-century grip on power.

Ruling party presidential candidate Daniel Chapo secured 65 percent of the vote, the seven-judge bench ruled, revising down the initial results of nearly 71 percent.

The final results follow two months of street protests that left more than one hundred people dead in the southern African country.

Second placed opposition leader Venancio Mondlane has said that the election was stolen from him. Several international observer missions have also said there were irregularities.

Mondlane, who has taken refuge abroad for fear of his safety, vowed to call "a popular uprising" if the Constitutional Council approved Chapo's victory.

"Difficult days will come," said the 50-year-old, who appeals to disenchanted younger voters in a country of 33 million people marked by extensive poverty despite its abundant resources.

Tension was already mounting in the capital Maputo ahead of the court decision with many businesses shut.

The main roads into the city centre were barricaded by police and access to the presidential palace and Constitutional Council office shut, AFP journalists saw.

Monday's result lines up Chapo, a 47-year-old former provincial governor, to take over from President Filipe Nysui whose second term ends on January 15.

With limited experience in politics or government, Chapo would be Mozambique's first president born after independence and the first not to have served as a Frelimo fighter.

Frelimo has ruled the country since independence from Portugal in 1975.