MAPUTO – Mozambique’s charismatic opposition leader Venancio Mondlane, who claims to have won the October 9 general election, has used social media to fire up younger people desperate for change in his impoverished country.

Known simply by his first name, the 50-year-old former MP and media commentator returned home Thursday to push his claim to the presidency after directing weeks of protests from an unknown location abroad.

“I am the president elected by… the genuine will of the people,” Mondlane said in front of journalists at the Maputo airport, raising his hand as if swearing an oath.

“I swear on my honour to respect the constitution and the laws, to use all my physical, psychological, intellectual and even emotional energies for the benefit of this land so that in five or 10 years it may become one of the greatest nations in the world,” he said.

It is a message that resonates with young people in the poor but resource-rich country who are seeking change after 50 years of rule by the socialist Frelimo party.

Frelimo’s candidate Daniel Chapo was declared winner of the October vote and is due to be sworn in next week. Mondlane claims the results were rigged and he won.

While out of the country during more than two months of self-exile, Mondlane used his media skills to build a formidable online presence that directed waves of protests.

His eager supporters brought cities to a standstill and halted business at ports and border posts, at great cost to the economy.

Around 300 people have been killed in nearly three months of violence, most of them opposition demonstrators shot by security forces, according to local NGOs, but also some police.

Often in a three-piece suit and always with a perfectly styled afro, Mondlane comes across as warm and familiar as he speaks of the inequalities and frustrations in his country.

A forthright speaker, his searing criticism of Frelimo has endeared him to many who believe that poverty is deepening while the party faithful have pocketed riches.

Mondlane’s return gives people hope, said Fatima Pinto, 20, on the eve of his arrival.

“We young people are here fighting for our tomorrow,” she said. “He’s rekindling the flame of hope that had already been extinguished for many of us.”

After an 11-year rise through opposition politics, Mondlane poses the biggest challenge to Frelimo since it took power after independence from Portugal in 1975, Maputo-based political analyst Johann Smith told AFP.

Previously, “they decided and shared power on their terms. After every election, they put the cake down and they cut it up,” the analyst said.

“But for the first time, someone told them, ‘No, I do not want 20 percent, that cake is mine’.”

Mondlane is the most “charismatic political figure” in Mozambique, Smith said. “He speaks to the man in the street,” he added. “He uses terms they understand.”

His pre-election rallies drew boisterous crowds of young people who felt abandoned by Frelimo.

“If today they are marginalised, it is because someone marginalised them,” he once thundered.

Mondlane pledged to tackle endemic corruption, revamp the economy and combat jihadist attacks that have plagued the gas-rich nation.

The October election, which international observers say was marred by irregularities, saw him oust the Renamo party of former rebels as the main political opposition.

Mondlane was brought up in Matola, the country’s most populous city, on the outskirts of the capital Maputo.

He made a name for himself around 15 years ago as a political commentator on a private television station, and later stood for mayor of Maputo in an election also marred by claims of vote rigging.

For the presidential election, he ran with the Optimistic Party for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos), proving wrong the predictions that he would fail without a major party’s backing. – AFP