MAPUTO, Mozambique – Mozambique’s ruling party chose Daniel Chapo as its new leader, making the provincial governor the clear frontrunner to succeed President Filipe Nyusi after October 9 elections.
The Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) made the decision on Sunday following a three-day meeting of its 254-member central committee near Maputo, the capital, Catarina Dimande, a member of the panel, announced on state television.
Its pick comes as a surprise as Chapo has never served in the national cabinet and his name didn’t feature on most lists of potential winning candidates.
A final communiqué of the meeting stated that Chapo won the internal election with 225 votes (94.1 percent) from the members of the central committee.
Nyusi has led Mozambique since 2014.
Chapo graduated with a law degree from Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo in 2000. He graduated with a master’s degree in development management from the Catholic University of Mozambique and also taught constitutional law and political science.
He briefly worked as a radio presenter at Rádio Miramar, in the city of Beira before taking up a job as administrator of the district of Palma in the province of Cabo Delegado in 2015.
He was appointed governor of the province of Inhambane in March 2016, a position he held at the time of his nomination to lead Frelimo.
Born in Inhaminga, Sofala province, central Mozambique, on January 6, 1977, Chapo is the first Frelimo candidate born after the country’s independence in 1975.
Mozambique will hold its seventh presidential and legislative elections on October 9. Past Frelimo candidates – Samora Machel, Joaquim Chissano, Armando Guebuza and Filipe Nyusi – have gone on to win elections, making it highly likely Chapo will be the country’s next leader.
Chapo will be charged with unlocking Mozambique’s opportunity for faster economic growth driven by gas in the next decade.
