MAPUTO (AFP) - Some 200,000 Mozambicans living abroad, mostly in South Africa, will for the first time be able to cast ballots in the December presidential and parliamentary elections, electoral officials said yesterday.

"It is legitimate that our compatriots abroad can now be given the opportunity of taking part in the country's political life after being excluded several times for organisational and financial reasons," said a spokesman for the national elections commission, Antonio Manjate.

The expatriates from Mozambique have never been able to vote in their country's two previous multi-party elections since the end of the 16-year civil war in late 1992.

A former Portuguese colony, Mozambique will be holding its third multi-party elections on December 1 and 2 to elect a parliament and successor to President Joaquim Chissano, who is stepping down after 18 years in office.

Chissano, leader of the governing Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO), took power after Mozambican president Samora Machel died in a plane crash in 1986.

FRELIMO Secretary General Armando Guebuza is his party's presidential candidate. His main rivals in the December vote will be Afonso Dhlakama of the former rebel group turned political party, the Mozambique National Resistance movement, and Raul Domingos, leader of the Party for Peace Democracy and Development (PDD).

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