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Mozambique elects representatives at several levels:
Mozambican elections are run by a National Election Commission (CNE), and the election law has changed often. In December 2012, a new law in regards to the composition of the election commission consists of eight political party representatives: five appointed by the incumbent FRELIMO, two appointed by the principal opposition RENAMO and one by the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM). There are further three members nominated by civil society representatives,[ who? ] a judge appointed by the Higher Council of the Judicial Magistrature and an attorney appointed by the Higher Council of the Public Prosecutor's Office. [1]
In the first multi-party elections held in Mozambique, in 1994, FRELIMO candidate and president of Mozambique since 1986 Joaquim Chissano was elected and the opposition party and former guerrilla group RENAMO acknowledged the result. The United Nations Security Council, which had a peacekeeping operation based there due to the civil war, endorsed the results as free and fair in Resolution 960.
In the elections in late 1999 President Joaquim Chissano from FRELIMO was re-elected with 52.3% of the vote, and FRELIMO secured 133 of 250 parliamentary seats. The main opposition parties candidate, RENAMO's Afonso Dhlakama, got 47.7% and the party won the remaining 117 parliamentary seats.
In the 1–2 December 2004 election Armando Guebuza, the new FRELIMO candidate, won with 63.7% of the votes, more than twice as many as RENAMO's candidate Afonso Dhlakama (31.7%). In the parliamentary election FRELIMO won 62% (1.8 million) of the votes, RENAMO 29.7% (905,000 votes), and 18 minor parties shared the remaining 8%. FRELIMO will hold 160 of the parliamentary seats, RENAMO 90.
The elections have been criticized for not having been conducted in a fair and transparent manner by the National Electoral Commission. Several cases of electoral fraud have occurred and remained unsanctioned. This has been criticized among others by the European Union Election Observation Mission to Mozambique and the Carter Center. However, the elections shortcomings have probably not (also according to EU observers) affected the result in the presidential election. The distribution of parliamentary seats among the parties will have been somewhat altered, though (RENAMO probably losing a number of seats to FRELIMO).
On 2 February 2005 Guebuza was sworn in as president of the republic, but without Dhlakama and RENAMO's recognition and presence at the inauguration. RENAMO have, however, agreed to participate in the Parliament and the Council of State.
The Presidential and Parliamentary elections were held on 28 October 2009 for the fourth time since the introduction of the multiparty system. In the elections for the Assembly of the Republic, FRELIMO and RENAMO contested all 13 parliamentary constituencies, but the newly formed MDM was able to contest only 4 parliamentary constituencies.
The Presidential and Parliamentary elections were held on 15 October 2014 for the fifth time since the introduction of the multiparty system. In the elections for the Assembly of the Republic, FRELIMO, MDM and RENAMO contested all 13 parliamentary constituencies.
Political Party | Election Year | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1994 | 1999 | 2004 | 2009 | 2014 | 2019 | |||
Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) | 129 | 133 | 160 | 191 | 144 | 184 | ||
Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO) | 112 | - | - | 51 | 89 | 60 | ||
Mozambican National Resistance-Electoral Union (RENAMO-UE) | - | 117 | 90 | - | - | - | ||
Democratic Union (UD) | 09 | - | - | - | - | - | ||
Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM) | - | - | - | 08 | 17 | 6 | ||
Total | 250 | 250 | 250 | 250 | 250 | 250 | ||
Turnout | 87.9% | 69.54% | 33.60% | 44.63% | 49.03% | 51.84% | ||
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.
FRELIMO is a democratic socialist political party in Mozambique. It has governed the country since its independence from Portugal in 1975.
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 RENAMO-Electoral Union is an alliance of political parties in Mozambique, led by the Mozambican National Resistance of Afonso Dhlakama.
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.
General elections were held in Mozambique on 1 and 2 December 2004 to elect a president and the Assembly of the Republic. Incumbent president Joaquim Chissano stepped down after 18 years in power, with five candidates running to succeed him. Armando Guebuza of the ruling FRELIMO party won, with over 60% of the vote. FRELIMO also won the Assembly elections, taking 160 of the 250 seats. Turnout for both elections was just over 36%.
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 Rome General Peace Accords, officially the General Peace Accords, was a peace treaty signed between the government of Mozambique and RENAMO, ending the Mozambican Civil War on October 4, 1992. Negotiations preceding the agreement began in July 1990. They were brokered by a team of four mediators, two members of the Community of Sant'Egidio, Andrea Riccardi and Matteo Zuppi, as well as Bishop Jaime Gonçalves and Italian government representative Mario Raffaelli. The delegation of the Mozambican government was headed by Armando Guebuza, who went on to become President of Mozambique. The RENAMO delegation consisted of Raul Domingos, José de Castro, Vicente Ululu, Agostinho Murrial, João Almirante, José Augusto and Anselmo Victor. The accords were then signed by the then-president of Mozambique Joaquim Chissano, and by the leader of RENAMO, Afonso Dhlakama.
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.
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 Democratic Movement of Mozambique is a political party in Mozambique. Founded on 6 March 2009, it was led by Daviz Simango, who was the Mayor of Beira. It formed after breaking with RENAMO, the main opposition party.
Daviz Mbepo Simango was a Mozambican politician who was Mayor of Beira from 2003 to the day of his death in February 2021. He was also the President of the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM). He was son of Uria Timoteo Simango the first Vice-President of FRELIMO and Celina Tapua Simango. He joined the main opposition party RENAMO in 1997 and became Mayor of Beira in 2003 as its candidate. On March 6, 2009, he founded a new party, the Movimento Democrático de Moçambique, or MDM.
General elections were held in Mozambique between 3 and 5 December 1999 to elect a president and the Assembly of the Republic. Incumbent president Joaquim Chissano won a narrow victory against Afonso Dhlakama, whilst Chissano's FRELIMO party won the Assembly elections, taking 133 of the 250 seats. Voter turnout for the elections was around 68–70%.
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.
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.
Francisco Xavier Marcelino was a freedom fighter in Mozambique, director of external relations for the anti-communist RENAMO political movement, and later a member of Mozambique's Assembly of the Republic (parliament).
General elections were held in Mozambique on 9 October 2024.