Mozambique votes in tense election

Polls for Mozambique general election opens on Tuesday at 5 GMT.

Some 13 million Mozambicans are expected to select a President of the republic, 250 deputies, ten governors and members of provincial assemblies.

Early on Tuesday, the some of the country’s 20,000 polling stations welcomed their first batch of voters.

Many fear the election could test the country’s fragile peace, after a heated campaign marred by violence.

The situation escalated last week, when the head of a local election observation mission was shot dead by members of a special police in Gaza.

Reports say, President Filipe Nyusi, is tipped as the favorite of the presidential race . However, his government is plagued by crisis.

His Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), in power since independence, plunged the country into a serious financial crisis after a $2 billion “hidden debt” was revealed in 2016.