Armando Guebuza takes lead in election results

Mozambique's President Armando Guebuza and his ruling party have taken an overwhelming 77 percent lead in the country's fourth democratic elections, according to the latest results released on Saturday.

With 72 percent of polling stations reporting, Guebuza was ahead with 77 percent of votes counted in the presidential race, while his party Frelimo was standing at 77 percent in the votes for the parliamentary seats.

Afonso Dhlakama, the long-time leader of opposition party Renamo, has garnered 14 percent of votes cast and his party 15 percent, the results showed.

The election campaign was generally more peaceful than in previous elections and reflected constructive messages by the political contestants.

the EU observer report

Daviz Simango, founder of the breakaway Democratic Movement of Mozambique, has only received nine percent of the vote and his party five percent.

International observers said the elections were peaceful, but raised questions about the exclusion of opposition parties from some races.

European Union observers called Wednesday's elections "well-managed" and "calm," but in a finding echoed by other observer missions said the rejection of several parties' lists for legislative and provincial elections meant "a restriction of voter choice at a local level."

"The election campaign was generally more peaceful than in previous elections and reflected constructive messages by the political contestants," the EU observer report said.

But it added: "The rejection of several parties' lists for the legislative and provincial elections, mainly as a result of the complexity of the electoral legal framework and some unclear procedures, had given rise to a restriction of voter choice at a local level."

Mozambique held its first democratic elections in 1994, part of a peace agreement that ended the country's 16-year civil war.