In October 2023, Mozambique held local elections to choose the mayors of each municipality and their council members. The initial results announced by the National Election Commission (CNE) indicated that the ruling Frelimo Party (FRELIMO), the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique, won 64 out of 65 municipalities, leaving just one municipality for the opposition. Many polling station staff, representatives of civil society, and external election observers challenged these results. Numerous citizens staged protests across the country, some of which turned violent. Many of these protests were repressed by the police. Multiple parties filed appeals in court regarding how the election had been conducted, and courts annulled results in certain polling stations and municipalities. According to the domestic NGO Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), which monitored the electoral process, this was the “worst election in Mozambique’s history.” Is Mozambican democracy in crisis? This article considers the causes behind these outcomes and explores the future of Mozambique’s democracy.

Former presidents painted on a wall (Photo: Cornelius Kibelka / Flickr [CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED])

A long struggle for democracy

Southeastern Africa, where Mozambique is located, was not originally a single country or a single political organization. For centuries, the region was home to multiple groups that maintained commercial and diplomatic ties not only with other African groups but also with Arab and Persian groups. In 1498, Portugal began the occupation and colonization of this territory and, together with other European powers that had occupied neighboring regions, delineated Mozambique’s borders.

Resistance to Portuguese occupation was always present in various forms and scales across different groups, but it intensified in the mid-1900s. The struggle that ultimately led to independence began with the formation of regional unions. With political and military support from other African countries that had already achieved independence, as well as from socialist states such as the Soviet Union, Cuba, China, and North Korea, these unions gradually converged into a single liberation movement, forming FRELIMO (Note 1) in 1962.

After a decade-long war of independence waged by FRELIMO against the Portuguese government, Mozambique achieved independence in 1975. Following independence, Mozambique was governed under the leadership of the Frelimo Party as a one-party state without democratic elections. Guided by a Marxist–Leninist ideology, the Frelimo government implemented a centrally planned economy and maintained close ties with the Soviet Union.

However, opposition to the Frelimo government and its ideology emerged from within Mozambique. In the context of the Cold War, Mozambican forces seeking to overthrow Frelimo received military and financial support from the United States and apartheid South Africa. This force became known as the Mozambican National Resistance, Renamo (Note 2), and rose as an armed opposition movement. Clashes between the Frelimo Party and Renamo began in 1976 and continued for 16 years. A combination of international and domestic factors led to the end of the conflict and a peace agreement in 1992. Internationally, the end of the Cold War was a key factor. The Italy-based Catholic organization, the Community of Sant’Egidio (Comunidade Sant Egidio), mediated peace talks between President Joaquim Chissano representing Frelimo and Afonso Dhlakama representing Renamo.

Afterward, a plan was drawn up for disarmament, demobilization, and the reintegration of former combatants (DDR). However, this plan was only partially implemented, and some Renamo residual forces remained in their bases.

As a condition for signing the peace agreement, Renamo demanded guarantees that its members could safely participate in politics as part of a democratic process. In this context, Renamo became a legitimate political party, and many other parties were formed. As a result, in 1994 Mozambique held its first multiparty elections. Frelimo won that election and has continued to win to this day, while Renamo has maintained the second-largest share of votes. Renamo’s support base lies in central and northern Mozambique, and over the years it has also gained popularity in the south.

Mozambique’s political system

Mozambique is a multiparty democracy that directly elects a president every five years and has a 250-seat parliament elected from provincial constituencies. Members of parliament are chosen not by direct vote but by proportional representation, whereby voters cast ballots for parties and the parties designate their representatives. Gubernatorial elections in each province are held simultaneously. In addition to exercising executive power, the president appoints the prime minister and cabinet ministers who form the government. The president also appoints Supreme Court judges, the Speaker of Parliament, prosecutors, and the heads of the armed forces, the police, and electoral bodies.

Municipal elections are also held every five years, one year before the general elections mentioned above. In these municipal elections, the mayors and councilors of the 65 municipalities across the country’s 11 provinces are chosen. This election also uses proportional representation, with voters selecting their preferred party to choose representatives. The 65 municipalities are designated based on population density and geographic factors. Municipal elections are administered by the CNE and the Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE). Members of these bodies are nominated by parties in proportion to the number of parliamentary seats they hold. In other words, the party with more seats nominates more members. Because this favors Frelimo, the party with the largest number of seats, it has long been questioned.

Young voters lining up to cast their ballots (Photo: Commonwealth Secretariat / Flickr [CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED])

Since the democratization process began in the 1990s and multiparty politics were established, decentralization has been one of the government’s main goals because it is important for reducing inequalities among local governments nationwide. Another aim was to shift budget planning from the central government to municipalities, giving them the authority to manage basic services independently of the central government. By advancing decentralization, the intention was to promote democratization and improve people’s living conditions. Together with population growth, this process significantly increased the number of municipalities. When the first municipal elections were held in 1998, there were 33 municipalities; 25 years later, in 2023, that number had grown to 65.

What was distinctive about this election

The 2023 elections were the sixth municipal elections since the multiparty elections of 1994, and they drew more attention and higher turnout than the previous five. Various factors underlay this, particularly widespread discontent with deteriorating economic and social conditions, including the rising cost of living, a lack of basic public services, a crisis in the education system, a dysfunctional public transport system, and worsening sanitation. These conditions were further aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, a civil service pay reform that was to raise public sector wages from 2023 failed due to fiscal deficits, which further increased dissatisfaction with the government.

The 2023 elections also had special significance as the first held after the completion of the Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) process. In the past, Renamo believed it could use its remaining military strength as a deterrent against manipulation of results by the ruling party. Indeed, Renamo’s forces contested the results of the fourth municipal elections in 2013 and the 2014 presidential elections, carrying out military attacks and guerrilla incursions in Sofala Province, in central Mozambique, between 2014 and 2017. Remarkably, in an October 2013 speech, former Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama, enraged that the municipal election results were not in Renamo’s favor, declared, “I will burn the whole country. I will split this country apart and burn it.”

Problems with the elections

Issues surrounding the 2023 municipal elections surfaced rapidly as soon as the results were announced.

Each polling station has commissioners nominated by the parties, who supervise and administer the voting and ultimately sign documents detailing the number of voters and the total votes cast. During the counting and provisional reporting stages, several opposition parties reported cases of fraud and violence against opposition delegates verifying results. Examples included ruling party agents bringing in pre-marked ballots in favor of Frelimo and police involvement in ballot theft. There were also allegations that the National Election Commission was involved in excluding opposition delegates from the tabulation process.

Vila Algarve (Vila Algarve) in the capital Maputo and election posters (Photo: lucianf / Flickr [CC BY 2.0 DEED])

After the results were published, there were as many as 401 uprisings and demonstrations across the country. These protests were led primarily by leaders of the opposition Renamo Party. Many of the chants and signs at the demonstrations used lyrics from a popular rap song, “Povo no poder” (“Power to the people”). The rapper Azagaia, the artist behind the song, was fiercely critical of the government in much of his work. After his death in 2023, protests around his funeral were suppressed, which amplified anti-government demonstrations. Some of the protests turned violent, and clashes between demonstrators and police were prominent. Thousands mobilized via social media to join demonstrations protesting suspected electoral fraud and the repression of democratic expression.

The announced results were highly favorable to the ruling Frelimo Party, but dissatisfaction was evident not only among the opposition and the general public, but also within the ruling party itself. The level of fraud (and the perception of it) caused major discontent within Frelimo, especially among former leaders, including a former president, who were disillusioned by the party’s behavior and called for the election results to be respected.

Some local courts responded positively to the opposition’s requests to annul results and hold new elections, while others ordered recounts. One case in which the 2023 election results were recounted was the municipality of Quelimane. This municipality has been led for the past 15 years by a charismatic Renamo representative (Manuel de Araújo). It is also a huge constituency that elects 46 of the 250 members of parliament, making it a municipality that Frelimo has long coveted. In other words, the party that controls this municipality has the potential to gain more seats in parliament. In the 2023 elections, the initial announcement declared a Frelimo victory. However, Renamo contested the result, first in a local court and then before the Constitutional Council. The Constitutional Council recalculated the votes, and Renamo won the municipality of Quelimane.

After the disputes surrounding the 2023 municipal elections subsided, the final outcome was revised to a Frelimo victory in 56 out of 65 municipalities, a significant change from the initial tally of 64.

The media’s role in the electoral process

In the 2023 municipal elections, the media played a major role. Both traditional media and social media influenced voter behavior from the candidate registration period through the campaign and voting. The media were also crucial in reporting irregularities revealed during the election period, including police involvement in manipulating results. Information about the elections was often livestreamed on social media platforms, and private television channels broadcast allegations of irregularities as well as protests by citizens against the initial results announced by the CNE and STAE.

Commonwealth observers being interviewed (Photo: Commonwealth Secretariat / Flickr [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED])

Some private media outlets received death threats and other intimidation for reporting on irregularities. One example was the TV channel “TV Sucesso,” whose CEO is a member of parliament representing Frelimo. The channel gave extensive coverage to the electoral process and reported instances in which police used force. It reportedly faced considerable pressure, including death threats, to halt its reporting.

Conclusion

The municipal elections held in Mozambique in 2023 exposed numerous problems in the electoral process and strong dissatisfaction with governance. This is just one example of the challenges Mozambique faces in its democratization and state-building process. The results suggest that the ruling party’s oft-repeated slogan of free and fair elections has become little more than rhetoric.

Presidential and parliamentary elections are scheduled for October 2024. For these results to truly reflect the will of the people, all electoral bodies must work to create an environment in which free and fair elections enable genuine political competition. To that end, reforms may be necessary to ensure that electoral bodies are sufficiently independent from the executive power represented by members of the ruling party.

Note 1: To distinguish FRELIMO as a liberation movement from the party, we write the former as “FRELIMO,” and the latter as “the Frelimo Party” or “the Frelimo government.”

Note 2: To distinguish Renamo as the Mozambican National Resistance before it was recognized as a political party from the political party, we write the former as “Renamo,” and the latter as “the Renamo Party.”

Writer: Delio Z. (Delio Zandamela)

Graphics: Ayaka Takeuchi

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