Maputo – Mozambique will hold nationwide elections in October next year, the government of the gas-rich southern African country that has been fighting a prolonged Islamist insurgency has said.
Mozambicans will vote for the president, legislature and provincial authorities on October 9, 2024, the presidency said in a statement on Friday evening, adding the decision was taken during a State Council meeting chaired by President Filipe Nyusi.
The constitution prevents Nyusi, 64, from seeking a third term but his ruling Frelimo party, which has been in power since independence from Portugal in 1975, is yet to pick a successor.
Frelimo won a landslide victory in the last general elections in 2019, garnering 73 percent of the vote, although the results were disputed by the largest opposition party, Renamo, a former rebel group.
Frelimo and Renamo fought a brutal civil war from 1975-1992, devastating the economy and leaving almost one million people dead.
Under a peace deal, district elections were also to be held in 2024, but parliament this week voted for those to be pushed back.
Mozambique has set high hopes on vast natural gas deposits – the largest found south of the Sahara – that were discovered in the northern Cabo Delgado province in 2010.
But an insurgency waged by militants linked to the Islamic State group in the region has stalled progress.