The 2023 Mozambican local elections were held on 11 October 2023 to elect mayors and municipal councils across the country. [1] The results published initially by the National Election Commission (CNE) had FRELIMO winning 64 of the 65 municipalities contested, with the only city won by another party being Beira, which was won by the Democratic Movement of Mozambique. [2] Tensions rose prior to the elections, with the police arresting members of the opposition in several cities. [3] On October 27, after the provisional election results came out, protests broke out in several major cities such as Nampula and Maputo in reaction to alleged fraud in the election. [4] [5]
The United States embassy in Mozambique acknowledged credible reports of irregularities in the elections, and called for the CNR to ensure that "votes are counted accurately and transparently." [6] The NGO Maise Integredade, which sent over 2000 observers across the country, reported irregularities at polling stations in several municipalities, including ballot stuffing and voter intimidation. [7] [8] Additionally, some areas of the country reported experiencing internet shutdowns following the elections. [9]
Several district courts in Maputo recognized irregularities at polling stations and canceled voting. Similarly, in Chókwè, Gaza Province, local courts invalidated election results, however this was overturned by the Mozambican Constitutional Counsel who claimed sole authority to validate election results. [10] Courts in Cuamba, Niassa Province, as well as KaMpfumo, Maputo annulled the results in the elections in reaction to petitions by RENAMO. [11]
On 27 October 2023, protests occurred throughout Mozambique after RENAMO called for nationwide demonstrations after several courts found voting irregularities. [12] [13] At least three people have been killed by security forces, including a 10-year-old boy in Nampula Province. [13] Police have used tear gas on protesters in Maputo, and a 16-year-old was reported to have been shot by police in Chiúre, Cabo Delgado Province. [14]
The official final results were published by the Constitutional Court on 29 December 2023 (The number of municipalities increased from 53 in 2018 to 65 in 2023): [15]
| Party | Seats | +/– | |
|---|---|---|---|
| FRELIMO | 60 |  16 | |
| RENAMO | 4 |  4 | |
| Democratic Movement of Mozambique | 1 | 1 | |
| Total | 65 | – | |
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Africa to the southwest. The sovereign state is separated from the Comoros, Mayotte and Madagascar by the Mozambique Channel to the east. The capital and largest city is Maputo.
Mozambique was a Portuguese colony, overseas province and later a member state of Portugal. It gained independence from Portugal in 1975.
Politics in Mozambique takes place in a framework of a semi-presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Mozambique is head of state and head of government in a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Assembly of the Republic.
Samora Moisés Machel was a Mozambican military commander and political leader. A socialist in the tradition of Marxism–Leninism, he served as the first President of Mozambique from the country's independence in 1975.
FRELIMO is a democratic socialist political party in Mozambique. It has been the country's ruling party since 1977.
Nampula is the capital city of Nampula Province in Northern Mozambique. With a population of 743,125, it is the third-largest city in Mozambique after Maputo and Matola. The city is located in the interior of Nampula Province, approximately 200 kilometers from the coast and is surrounded by plains and rocky outcrops. The city is a major regional centre for the entire Northern region of Mozambique, as well as parts of Central Mozambique and border areas of Malawi and Tanzania.
RENAMO is a Mozambican political party and militant group. The party was founded with the active sponsorship of the Rhodesian Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) in May 1977 from anti-communist dissidents opposed to Mozambique's ruling FRELIMO party. RENAMO was initially led by André Matsangaissa, a former senior official in FRELIMO's armed wing, and was composed of several anti-communist dissident groups which appeared immediately prior to, and shortly following, Mozambican independence. Matsangaissa, who died in 1979, was succeeded by Afonso Dhlakama, who led the organization until he died in 2018. He was succeeded by Ossufo Momade.
The United Nations Operations in Mozambique was a UN peace mission to Mozambique established in December 1992 under Security Council Resolution 797 with the assignment to monitor the implementation of the Rome General Peace Accords agreed upon by the Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano of FRELIMO, the Front for Liberation of Mozambique, and Afonso Dhlakama of RENAMO, the Mozambican National Resistance. The operation was one of the most significant and extensive UN operations and it sought to demobilize and disarm troops, provide humanitarian aid, and oversee the elections. The operation ended in December 1994.
Armando Emílio Guebuza is a Mozambican politician who was the third President of Mozambique from 2005 to 2015.
Afonso Marceta Macacho Dhlakama was a Mozambican politician and the leader of RENAMO, an anti-communist guerrilla movement that fought the FRELIMO government in the Mozambican Civil War before signing a peace agreement and becoming an opposition political party in the early 1990s. Dhlakama was born in Mangunde, Sofala Province.
The Mozambican Civil War was a civil war fought in Mozambique from 1977 to 1992. Like many regional African conflicts during the late twentieth century, the impetus for the Mozambican Civil War included local dynamics exacerbated greatly by the polarizing effects of Cold War politics. The war was fought between Mozambique's ruling Marxist Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO), the anti-communist insurgent forces of the Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO), and a number of smaller factions such as the PRM, UNAMO, COREMO, UNIPOMO, and FUMO.
Filipe Jacinto Nyusi is a Mozambican politician serving since 2015 as the fourth President of Mozambique. He is the current leader of FRELIMO, the party that has governed Mozambique since its independence from Portugal in 1975. Additionally, he has served as the Chairman of the Southern African Development Community since August 2020. During his time in office, President Nyusi has promoted peace and security, and signed multiple agreements with the main opposition parties, RENAMO, to bring a definitive and lasting peace to Mozambique.
Manuel A. Alculete Lopes de Araújo is a Mozambican politician who has been Mayor of Quelimane since December 2011.
General elections to elect the president, Assembly of the Republic, and Provincial Assemblies was held in Mozambique on 28 October 2009. Incumbent President Armando Guebuza ran for re-election as the FRELIMO candidate; he was challenged by opposition leader Afonso Dhlakama, who had stood as the RENAMO candidate in every presidential election since 1994. Also standing were Daviz Simango, the Mayor of Beira, who was a RENAMO member before founding his own party, the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM), earlier in 2009.
The Catholic University of Mozambique is a university in Mozambique.
General elections were held in Mozambique on 15 October 2014. Filipe Nyusi, the candidate of the ruling FRELIMO, was elected president, and FRELIMO retained its parliamentary majority.
The RENAMO insurgency was a guerrilla campaign by militants of the RENAMO party and one of its splinter factions in Mozambique. The insurgency was widely considered to be an aftershock of the Mozambican Civil War; it resulted in renewed tensions between RENAMO and Mozambique's ruling FRELIMO coalition over charges of state corruption and the disputed results of the 2014 general elections.
Gilles Cistac was a French-Mozambican lawyer specialised in constitutional law. He was shot and killed and political motives were suspected. The RENAMO party organised protests.
General elections were held in Mozambique on 15 October 2019. During the leadup to the elections, assassinations and significant intimidation of prominent leaders of opposition parties and election observers were alleged. In addition, state resources, media, and aid for cyclone victims were also alleged to be used in favour of the ruling party (FRELIMO) and its candidates. Local elections observers, civil society organizations, the Commonwealth Observer Group, the European Union Election Observation Mission, and several national and international entities classified the elections as rigged. Nevertheless, the incumbent president Filipe Nyusi of FRELIMO was declared re-elected with 73% of the vote. The main opposition party RENAMO as well as the other oppositions parties involved in the elections contested the results, claiming there were numerous irregularities, and accusing FRELIMO of "massive electoral fraud", including hundreds of thousands of "ghost voters". As evidence for the international community, Ossufo Momade, the president of the main opposition party RENAMO, transported to Europe a box filled with vote ballots that had been marked in favor of the incumbent president Filipe Nyusi of FRELIMO before the commencement of voting. Despite these occurrences, the international community largely ignored any concerns of fraud, and gradually countries started recognizing the incumbent president Filipe Nyusi of FRELIMO as the winner of the elections.
The concept of human rights in Mozambique is an ongoing issue for the African country, officially named the Republic of Mozambique. For more than four centuries, Mozambique was ruled by the Portuguese. Following Mozambique’s independence from Portugal came 17 years of civil war, between RENAMO and FRELIMO, until 1992, when peace was finally reached. Armando Guebuza was then elected president in 2004 and re-elected in 2009, despite criticisms that he lacked honesty, transparency, and impartiality. This sparked a series of human rights incidents including unlawful killing, arbitrary arrests, inhumane prison conditions, and unfair trials. There were also many issues regarding freedom in relation to speech and media, internet freedom, freedom of peaceful assembly, and discrimination and abuse of women, children and people with disabilities. Many of these issues are ongoing and have become current human rights violation is for Mozambique.
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