GNV News, October 27, 2024

The results of Mozambique’s general presidential election held on October 9, 2024, were announced on October 24 by the election commission. Daniel Chapo, who ran as the successor to the incumbent president from the ruling Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO), was confirmed elected with about 70.7% of the vote. However, many citizens have not accepted the result. Claims from domestic and international election observer missions of irregularities in the conduct of the election have grown, and nationwide protests have been held since before the election took place.

Mozambique won independence from Portugal in 1975 after a war of independence. Armed conflict continued into the 1990s, and after a peace agreement, the country held its first multiparty elections in 1994. Since independence, the ruling FRELIMO has held power for 49 years. In this election, it was announced that Venâncio Mondlane, regarded as a leading opposition-aligned candidate, received only 20.3% of the vote, but in response Mondlane is calling for protests. Mondlane ran as an independent candidate but was backed by the “Optimistic Party for the Development of Mozambique (PODEMOS).” However, on October 18, a PODEMOS party member and a lawyer who had been preparing a lawsuit to contest the election results were killed. Even after the results were announced, tensions continue.

Learn more about Mozambique → “Crisis of democracy?: Mozambique as seen in the 2023 local elections”

Supporters of the ruling FRELIMO, 2023 (Photo: Amâncio Miguel: VOA Português / Wikimedia Commons [Public domain])