Maputo  - Mozambicans went to the polls Wednesday to elect a president and parliament in a vote expected to endorse President Armando Guebuza's leadership of the emerging energy power and rising star among African nations.

Guebuza is leader of the ruling Frelimo party, a former Marxist liberation movement that freed the south-east African nation from Portuguese rule in 1975 and has won every election since the first multi-party ballot in 1994.

Frelimo's main challenger is the conservative Renamo, which fought a 16-year civil war with Frelimo between 1976 and 1992, with backing from then apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).

Some 10.3 million Mozambicans are eligible to vote for a president, 250-seat national assembly and 10 new provincial assemblies between 7 am (0500 GMT) and 6 pm (1600 GMT).

In the past few years the country of around 20 million people, one of the world's poorest, has been one of Africa's success stories.

A surge of foreign investment in gas, coal, hydropower, mineral sands and other sectors has fuelled strong gross domestic product GDP growth, which is expected to come in at over 5 per cent this year, only slightly down on last year.

Guebuza, a wealthy businessman, is expected to easily win a second term as president. For second place, Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama faces a strong challenge from the leader of a new party, Daviz Simango.

Simango, mayor of the central port city of Beira, broke away from Renamo last year following a disagreement to form the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM).

The party, which has aroused interest among young voters, has been barred from contesting 9 of 13 constituencies in the National Assembly elections by the electoral commission, which is comprised of Frelimo and Renamo members. (dpa)