MAPUTO, Mozambique – Mozambique’s main opposition party Renamo on Tuesday appealed the result of the October 15 general election, calling on the country’s top court to annul incumbent President Filipe Nyusi’s victory.

Nyusi and his ruling Frelimo party won big in the election, which was hoped would calm tensions in Mozambique, soon to become a top global gas exporter. Instead, the contested result has stoked divisions as opposition parties have cried foul.

Nyusi won 73 percent of the votes in this month’s presidential poll, the electoral commission said, securing a landslide victory in a contest opposition parties say was marred by fraud and violence.

Ossufo Momade, the candidate for the main opposition party and former rebel movement Renamo, trailed behind with 21.88 percent of the vote, National Election Commission Chairman Abdul Carimo said at a news conference on Sunday.

“We want the election results to be annulled because they were not elections. They were a caricature, a circus show,” Venâncio Mondlane, a Renamo representative, told Reuters by phone.

“Today we filed the appeal to the Constitutional Council (CC) against the deliberation of the National Election Commission, which we do not agree with. We demand that the CC annul the election results,” Mondlane said.

It was hoped the election could set the seal on a fragile peace pact, designed to put a definitive end to four decades of violence between Frelimo and Renamo.

The two fought a 16-year civil war that ended in a truce in 1992 but have clashed sporadically since.

Renamo had wanted to win control of a number of provinces in Mozambique’s centre and north but came away empty handed. – Reuters