Frelimo is expected to retain a majority
Mozambicans went to the polls yesterday in their sixth election since becoming a democracy in 1994.
The Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo), which has governed the country since independence from Portugal in 1975, is expected to retain its majority. The election is being held to elect the president as well as a new parliament.
However, Frelimo is unlikely to have things its own way. The government of President Felipe Nyusi has been facing a number of issues, including a scandal over government borrowing. At the same time, the government has only recently signed a peace deal with its main rival, the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo). This followed a six-year Renamo insurgency against the Mozambican government. Conflict between Renamo and Frelimo is nothing new – the two had previously fought a civil war between 1975 and 1992.
The government is also dealing with a low-level Islamist insurgency in the country’s north.
For the first time in Mozambique’s democratic history, Renamo’s candidate will not be Afonso Dhlakama, the organisation’s leader since 1979, who died last year. Renamo’s presidential candidate in yesterday’s election was Ossufo Momade.
Other parties participating in the election are the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM) and newcomer, Action of the United Movement for All-Round Salvation (Amusi).
In the 2014 election, Nyusi was elected President with 57% of the vote. In the election for the Mozambican parliament, Frelimo received 56% of the vote, and Renamo a third of the vote. The MDM won nearly nine percent of the vote. No other parties won seats. This is because in the Mozambican election system parties need to win at least 5% of the vote to secure any seats.
Opposition parties and human rights groups said there were concerns that the election would not be free and fair.
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