The two main opposition parties were at a clear disadvantage in Quelimane, and the end of the campaign Sunday was not totally peaceful.

President Armando Guebuza, who is seeking re-election in Mozambique, says his greatest achievement in the first term of office is "the fact that I was able to begin to persuade Mozambicans that it is possible to eradicate poverty."

Mozambique's effort to become the first of the world's major mine-contaminated countries to be declared mine-free is faltering on the home straight.

All the polling stations for Mozambique's general and provincial elections will open on time, at 07.00 on Wednesday morning according to AIM.

Mozambique has joined Namibia in courting Botswana to build a railway line to its seaport and a dry port. The latest newsletter from the Botswana Ministry of Works and Transport says that Mozambique tabled its proposal in June.

With only two days to go before elections, there is still no publicly available list of candidates. Copies of the list have been made available, confidentially, to selected people, but have not been posted on the CNE website or published in Boletim da República.

Dancing, music, a lack of violence and a high participation characterised the final day of the campaign on Sunday, according to reports from our 100 journalists across Mozambique.

Below is statement by HE Dr. Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, Chairperson of the Commonwealth Observer Group, delivered as he prepared to lead a team of election observers to Mozambique.

The Angolan ambassador to Mozambique, Garcia Bires, considered the current Mozambican electoral model as interesting, since it encourages the political parties to define their priorities in the poll.

So far this year, the Brazilian mining giant Vale has invested 345 million US dollars in coal mining operations in Moatize, in the western Mozambican province of Tete, and by the end of the year the sum may reach 500 million dollars, according to Vale chairperson Roger Agnelli.

The election campaign now drawing to a close is "the most peaceful since the introduction of multi-party politics in Mozambique", according to Edson Macuacua, Central Committee Secretary for Mobilisation and Propaganda of the ruling Frelimo Party.

The Mozambican government is planning two new rail lines that will link the centre of the country to the northern line that runs from the port of Nacala to Malawi.

The conclusion of the rebuilding of the Sena railway line, which runs from the port of Beira to the Moatize coal basin in the western Mozambican province of Tete, has been delayed until January 2010, according to a report in the Beira daily paper "Diario de Mocambique".

The Irish government has pledged to provide 1.1 million euros (about 1.7 million US dollars) over the next three years to improve the business environment in Mozambique.

Several people were injured, one of them seriously, when, on Sunday, the last day of the Mozambican election campaign, supporters of the ruling Frelimo Party and of the former rebel movement Renamo clashed in the northern port of Nacala.

Mozambique's General Inspectorate of Labour (IGT) managed to collect, between January and September this year, about 19.3 million meticais (670,000 US dollars) which companies owed to the National Social Security Institute (INSS).

The Mozambican police arrested ten motorists in Maputo streets on Thursday, accused of attempting to bribe police officers to turn a blind eye to irregularities in their vehicles or their documents.

The Mozambican election campaign ended on Sunday, with the three presidential candidates making last minute calls for votes in widely separated parts of the country - Armando Guebuza, of the ruling Frelimo Party, in the northern city of Nampula, Afonso Dhlakama, of the main opposition party, Renamo, in Maputo and Gaza, in the south, and Daviz Simango, of the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), in his stronghold of Beira.

A 22 member mission from the African Union arrived in Maputo on Friday to observe Mozambique's presidential, parliamentary and provincial elections, scheduled for next Wednesday.

"It is not with envy or with theft that poverty can be beaten, but with hard work", declared Mozambican President Armando Guebuza on Friday.