Jacinto Felipe Nyusi (FRELIMO)
Filipe Jacinto Nyusi is the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) party presidential candidate. He was elected party president on March 1, 2014.
The 55-year-old Defence Minister was elected to the ruling party’s central committee at the 10th Frelimo Congress in September 2012.
He has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the then Czechoslovakia and now Czech Republic, postgraduate degree in management from the Victoria University in Manchester, England and also holds different management certificates from South Africa, Swaziland and the United States of America.
Between 1993 and 2002, he was the president of the top flight football club called Clube Ferroviario de Nampula.He was a Professor of mathematics for five years at the Pedagogical University in Nampula Province (2002).
Nyusi started his professional life by working at the Mozambique Ports and Railways authority in 1993, he was later appointed the executive director of CFM-Norte company, where he became a board member in 2007.
Afonso Dhlakama (RENAMO)
Afonso Marceta Macacho Dhlakama is the presidential candidate for the Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo) party.He became the president of Renamo after the first party president, André Matsangaissa, was killed by Mozambican government forces in 1979. Dhlakama was elected after a violent succession struggle, in which rival Orlando Cristina was assassinated.
61-year-old Dhlakama competed as the Renamo candidate in all three multiparty presidential elections held in Mozambique. In 1994, he was defeated by incumbent President and Frelimo candidate Joaquim Chissano by a margin of 53.3% to 33.7%.In 1999, he received 47.7% of the vote in the presidential election with Joachim Chissano capturing 52.3%.
In 2004 presidential election, he was defeated by FRELIMO candidate Armando Guebuza, who received 63.7% of the vote to his 31.7%.
After his loss of the elections in 2009, Dhlakama went back to the bush in 2012 and launched an offensive against the ruling party, demanding among other things an amendment to the electoral.
Daviz Mbepo Simango (MDM)
Daviz Mbepo Simango is the Mozambique Democratic Movement’s (MDM) presidential candidate.
He is currently serving as the Mayor of Beira after the Local Government Elections of November 2013.
50-year-old Simango holds a degree in civil engineering from the Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo.
His political career started when he founded the National Convention Party (NCP) in 1992.
In 1999, the NCP and nine other opposition parties joined a coalition with Renamo to contest the elections as (Renamo-Electoral Union) and by virtue Lutero Simango was elected Member of Parliament in 1999 and 2004.
As the mayor, he won several awards for good leadership and governance, but in 2008, Renamo refused to renew his candidacy and expelled him from the party for protesting the idea.
Simango registered with the electoral commission and ran as an independent candidate of which he managed to retain his mayorship.
In 2009, he founded the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) party.
– By
