"The National Elections Commission announces that citizen Armando Emilio Guebuza has been re-elected president of the republic of Mozambique for a period of five years," the commission's chief Joao Leopoldo da Costa told reporters, after the vote on October 28.

In the parliamentary race, Guebuza's Frelimo increased its majority from 160 seats to 191 seats in the 250-member legislature.

The race for second place -- closely watched in the wake of a recent opposition split -- was won by long-time opposition leader Afonso Dhlakama, leader of the former rebel movement Renamo, who took 16.5 percent of the vote.

Daviz Simango, founder of the breakaway Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM), was in third place with 8.6 percent. The new party took only eight seats in parliament, against 51 for Renamo.

The October 28 vote was Mozambique's fourth national poll since a 16-year civil war between Renamo and the Frelimo government ended in the establishment of multi-party democracy in 1994.

South African President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday congratulated Guebuza on his re-election, hailing the "excellent, historic and neighbourly relations" between the neighbouring countries and their citizens.

"It is furthermore my profound wish that these warm and close ties will continue to prosper during your new term of office", said Zuma in a statement.

earlier related report
Police shoot to disperse unpaid DR Congo fighters
Kinshasa (AFP) Nov 11, 2009 - Police fired in the air to break up a demonstration by ex-combatants in restive northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, local authorities said Wednesday.

Demobilised soldiers on Tuesday "besieged a naval colonel to ask for their reintegration papers and their backpay," said Eugenie Mwanya, mayor of the town where the incident happened.

"Police fired repeatedly into the air to disperse them" and to rescue the officer, Mwanya told AFP.

Nobody was injured or arrested.

Mbandaka is the capital of Equateur province, the stronghold of former warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba, who has been held by the International Criminal Court since 2008 for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity carried out in 2002-2003 by his militia in the Central African Republic.

Some of the former fighters who demonstrated on Tuesday belonged to the Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC), which Bemba ran until his arrest.

In 2004, the DR Congo's government launched an ambitious programme to disarm and reintegrate some 150,000 former fighters from the war that ravaged the country in 1998-2003.

Under the programme, each demobilised fighter was to get 75 dollars (50 euros) and then 25 euros a month for a year to make it easier for them to find jobs if they did not join the regular army. But since 2006, the commission overseeing the programme has run into financial difficulties.

Tuesday's demonstration came against a background of tension in Equateur province, officials said, since a new governor is to be elected on Friday in the sole province to be run by the MLC.

The former governor was dismissed last January for embezzlement.

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