The leader of the Union of Mozambican Democrats (UDM), Jose Viana, and his election agent, Aida Pires, are at each other's throats - but they agree on one thing: on 29 July, the closing date for nominations of candidates for next week's general elections, the UDM did not have a complete list of candidates for any of the 13 parliamentary constituencies.

The Mozambican police arrested a Zimbabwean woman last week at the Machipanda border post, in the central province of Manica, in possession of 10 grams of cocaine.

The district of Zumbo, in the western Mozambican province of Tete, will soon start receiving electricity from neighbouring Zambia under an agreement reached between the two countries.

Zimbabwean Prime Minister and leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Morgan Tsvangirai, told reporters in the central Mozambican city of Chimoio on Tuesday that he remains committed to the Global Political Agreement (GPA) that he signed with Robert Mugabe, leader of the ruling ZANU-PF, last year.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has called for peaceful elections in Mozambique on 28 October.

A Commonwealth Observer Group (COG) will be present during Mozambique's National and Provincial Elections due to be held on 28 October 2009. The COG will be led by former Sierra Leone President HE Dr Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was set to hold a crucial meeting on Tuesday with Mozambican President Armando Guebuza, who chairs the SADC's organ on Politics, Security and Defence.

Some employees of the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE), the electoral branch of the Mozambican civil service, in the northern province of Nampula, are protesting that the impending general elections are encroaching on their free time.

Mozambique's main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo on Monday, as the general election campaign entered its final week, suddenly announced that the first action of a Renamo government would be to re-open the investigation into the death of the country's first president, Samora Machel.

The 2,500 kilometres of Mozambique's main north/south highway, linking Maputo and Pemba, capital of the northern province of Cabo Delgado, will be fully rehabilitated by 2012.

Mozambican President Armando Guebuza began a tour of the central province of Manica on Monday, the final stage in his campaign for re-election, which has taken him across all 11 provinces.

Before a single vote has been cast in next week's general and provincial elections, Mozambique's main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, in the central province of Sofala, has accused the ruling Frelimo Party of massive fraud.

Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro today opened a gathering in the Rwandan capital that brings together the eight pilot countries taking part in the United Nations initiative that seeks to better coordinate development activities at the country level and avoid duplication.

Mozambique's relief agency, the National Disasters Management Institute (INGC), is installing delegations in all river basins prone to flooding, reports Monday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias".

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) hopes that the 28 October general and provincial elections in Mozambique will be peaceful, and that there will be consensus among the competing forces, according to the SADC deputy executive secretary, Joao Caholo.

Three more tiny political parties on Monday publicly announced their support for the incumbent president, Armando Guebuza, in the general elections scheduled for 28 October.

Mozambican President Armando Guebuza on Sunday brought his campaign for re-election to the central district of Maringue, which housed the headquarters of the apartheid-backed rebel movement Renamo during the closing years of the war of destabilisation.

Antonio Machava is standing by the gate of his farm listening to election campaigners. The group of young people says their party will fight for a law to protect small farmers and create conditions for them to prosper.

Sussundenga (Mozambique), 16 Oct (AIM) - Five members of the opposition Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) publicly defected to the ruling Frelimo Party on Wednesday in Sussundenga district, in the central province of Manica.

Mozambique's National Elections Commission (CNE) stands accused of falsifying the parliamentary lists of a minor political party so that it can stand in the forthcoming general election in the central province of Sofala.