SANF 24 no 40 by SARDC Writers
Mozambique will elect a president, parliamentarians and provincial governors in the seventh multi-party national elections to be held on 9 October.
Four candidates are contesting for the top job. Incumbent President Filipe Nyusi of the ruling Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) is not standing as he has served the statutory two terms in office.
For the first time since independence in 1975, Frelimo is fielding a presidential candidate who was born after independence – the charismatic 47-year-old Daniel Chapo, affectionately referred to as Brother Dan during campaigning that ended on 6 October.
A holder of a law degree, who previously worked as a radio and television presenter, he joined politics in 2009 and was later appointed administrator of Nacala-a-Velha District.
He became administrator of the Palma District in 2015, before President Nyusi elevated him to the post of governor of Inhambane Province in 2016.
He worked as governor until 2024 when he resigned to focus on his campaign following his selection as the governing party’s candidate.
Chapo is tipped to win the elections and become independent Mozambique’s fifth President after Samora Machel, Joaquim Chissano, Armando Guebuza and Nyusi.
His main competitors are Ossufo Momade of the main opposition Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), Lutero Simango, leader of the second biggest opposition party, the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), and Venancio Mondlane, an independent candidate who contested for Mayor of Maputo municipal elections held in 2023.
Momade contested in the last polls in 2019 and lost to Nyusi, after getting 22 percent of the vote against 74 percent for his main rival.
Mondlane is a former senior Renamo official who resigned in May after being barred from contesting for the party presidency. His decision to contest as an independent is expected to split the Renamo vote, thereby weakening the opposition to Chapo’s election bid.
Whoever will be elected must deal with serious challenges, chief among them an insurgency in the oil- and gas-rich northern Cabo Delgado province.
Stability in Cabo Delgado is crucial for the overall economic performance of the country, which has witnessed a surge in its fortunes over the past two decades following the discovery of oil and gas reserves in the north.
Election campaigning, which ran from 24 August into 6 October, has been largely peaceful and good-natured, with all the presidential aspirants promising to end terrorism that has affected Cabo Delgado province since 2017.
There has been a strong and visible campaign by the election authorities and main parties to campaign peacefully and this has been the case throughout most of the country.
The campaign has been lively and tough with the main parties working hard in the huge country of almost 800,000 square kilometres with a population of about 34 million people.
The president is directly elected for a five-year term and the winning candidate is required to win 50 percent plus one of the valid votes cast.
If no candidate wins more than half of the votes cast in the first round, then a second round of voting will be conducted and contested by the top two candidates. The candidate who receives the majority votes in the second round will be elected president.
In the last election held in 2019, Nyusi gained 74 percent of the ballots cast compared to 22 percent by Momade.
A total of 36 political parties have registered to take part in the elections and, for the second time, parties will appoint the governors for the provinces in which they get the most votes.
The House of Assembly in Mozambique is made of 250 members who are elected through a system of party-list proportional representation based on the country’s provinces.
According to the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE) of Mozambique, more than 17 million people have registered to vote.
Frelimo, as the national liberation movement, has won all elections since Mozambique gained independence and has a strong support base throughout the country.
In the last elections, Frelimo got a two-thirds majority after winning184 seats, followed by Renamo with 60 and MDM which got six.
Parliamentary candidates are elected through a proportional representation system. A party is expected to receive at least five percent of the national vote to gain representation in the national assembly.
Central to the campaigns by the political parties are issues around peace and security, investment in infrastructure, health and education and socio-economic issues such as job creation and salaries for civil servants, which have been a centre of attention following strikes held by health workers this year.
The elections have attracted interest from regional and international observers, with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) having deployed a 52-member SADC Election Observer Mission (SEOM).
Headed by former Zanzibar President, Dr Amani Abeid Karume, the SEOM was deployed on 3 October across all of Mozambique’s nine provinces.
As per tradition, the SEOM is expected to issue a preliminary statement soon after the elections, with a final statement due within a month of the conclusion of the poll.
Other observer missions are also in the country from the African Union, Electoral Commissions Forum, European Union, the Commonwealth and the community of Portuguese-speaking countries, including Portugal and Brazil.
The National Electoral Commission (CNE) has also approved the setting up of 602 polling stations outside the country, enabling more than 331,000 eligible voters who are registered as staying abroad to exercise their constitutional rights.
Mozambique has a unique system of separate constituencies for the diaspora. According to CNE, the bulk of the polling stations are in seven countries in Africa, with others in two European countries.
The foreign country with the largest number of polling stations is neighbouring South Africa, with 359 stations and 215,831 registered voters, followed by Tanzania (75), Malawi (61), Zimbabwe (60), Zambia (11), Eswatini (10) and Kenya (eight).
In Europe, the CNE approved the creation of five polling stations in Germany (for 670 voters) and 13 in Portugal (for 1,177 registered voters). sardc.net
