As more results from Thursday's general elections are announced over Radio Mozambique, they confirm that the ruling Frelimo Party and its presidential candidate, the incumbent, Armando Guebuza, are heading towards an overwhelming victory.

Judging by the results announced over Wednesday night and early on Thursday morning by Radio Mozambique and Mozambique Television (TVM), Mozambique's ruling Frelimo Party is heading for a landslide victory in the country's fourth multi-party general elections.

Early results from polling stations in Maputo city suggest that the newly formed Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) and its leader, Daviz Simango, may come second in this constituency in the parliamentary and presidential elections held on Wednesday.

The six polling stations set up in Zimbabwe so that Mozambicans resident in that country could vote in Wednesday's general election returned a crushing victory for the ruling Frelimo Party and its presidential candidate, the incumbent, Armando Guebuza.

As more results from Wednesday's general elections are announced over Radio Mozambique, they confirm that the ruling Frelimo Party and its presidential candidate, the incumbent, Armando Guebuza, are heading towards an overwhelming victory.

Mozambicans voted today in elections reported to have had a massive youth turnout.

The first polling station in the central Mozambican province of Sofala to declare results in Thursday's general election showed a collapse in the vote for the main opposition party, Renamo.

Mozambican President Armando Guebuza, standing for re-election in Thursday's general election, coasted to an easy victory in the first five polling stations in Maputo with results declared by Radio Mozambique.

Despite all the warnings issued by the National Elections Commission (CNE) and its executive body, the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE), polling station staff in at least two areas have broken the law by expelling election observers.

The first results from Mozambique's Thursday general elections announced on Radio Mozambique are from the district of Chokwe, in the southern province of Gaza, and show a crushing victory for the incumbent, Armando Guebuza, of the ruling Frelimo Party.

About 400 voters in Navara, a remote area of Pebane district, in the central Mozambican province of Zambezia, found themselves deprived of the right to vote on Wednesday morning because of a helicopter breakdown.

The head of the observation mission of the Parliamentary Forum of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) for the polls in Mozambique, David Matongo, said everything is in place for general elections in that country to take place Wednesday.

Afonso Dhlakama, leader of Mozambique's main opposition party, Renamo, on Thursday denied he had ever said that, if he loses Wednesday's presidential election, then he will never stand for the post again.

By mid-afternoon on Wednesday, the queues outside polling stations in central Maputo had largely disappeared, as the number of voters casting their ballots in Mozambique's general and provincial elections dwindled to a trickle.

The governor of the northern Mozambican province of Nampula, Felismino Tocoli, on Wednesday morning said he was unaware of the illicit use of state vehicles by an obscure group of domestic observers, who call themselves the Mozambican Forum of Electoral Observation (FAMOE).

The presidential candidate of the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), and mayor of Beira, Daviz Simango, on Thursday called on all registered voters to make their way to the polls for the country's general and provincial elections.

The chairperson of Mozambique's National Elections Commission (CNE), Joao Leopoldo da Costa, told reporters on Wednesday morning that, as far as he could see, the country's general and provincial elections are proceeding "normally".

More than nine million Mozambicans are expected to vote today in presidential and parliamentary polls after a campaign where the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has helped supply critical equipment, improve election officials' skills, train journalists, raise public awareness and coordinate the work of international monitors.

“We particularly appeal to polling station staff to act in an exemplary manner,” declared the National Elections Commission (CNE) in a nationally broadcast statement read out yesterday by President João Leopoldo da Costa.

Afonso Dhlakama, leader of the main opposition party, Renamo, who is standing for the presidency for the fourth time, told reporters after he had voted that "People want change, they want their rights.