Governing party is considered the frontrunner in the election – DW – October 7, 2024

Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, has been covered in red banners for weeks. Red is the color of Frelimo, the “Mozambique Liberation Front”.

Especially since August 24th – the day on which the election campaign officially began – the Frelimo red tone can be seen everywhere.

Frelimo has ruled Mozambique continuously since the African nation gained independence almost 50 years ago, and it looks as if it will continue on this path.

The new kid on the block: Daniel Chapo

But President Filipe Nyusi, who led the country for ten years, is not allowed to run again after two terms in office. Frelimo had to find a new candidate: 47-year-old Daniel Chapo has been governor of Inhambane province for eight years.

The former radio host and law lecturer’s face is ubiquitous on posters plastered on houses, walls, fences and giant outdoor billboards in Maputo, Beira, Nampula, Quelimane and other cities in Mozambique – almost as frequently as the iconic red banners and flags of Frelimo a drum and a corn cob, which are the symbols of the party.

A fragmented opposition

In addition to the ruling Frelimo, a total of 36 political parties were allowed to run for 250 parliamentary seats.

However, compared to the governing party’s election campaign, the others are hardly noticeable in everyday life: you can usually only see a few scattered posters of Frelimo opponents on main streets in the cities.

It’s hard to tell what they stand for or not: the posters show the faces of the presidential candidates they support and hardly show the full spectrum of Mozambique’s political landscape, which is not to say that Chapo has no opponents.

Candidates for the top post include opposition politician Ossufo Momade from the main opposition party, the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), Lutero Simango from the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) and Venancio Mondlane, who is supported by smaller parties such as the Optimist Party for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos), which does not yet have a representative in parliament.

Facing a relatively small and fragmented opposition, Daniel Chapo appears overly confident in his campaign – as if his victory was a foregone conclusion. However, this has also earned him some criticism, with some describing him as arrogant and pretentious:

In a statement made at a campaign rally in Niassa province a week before the elections, Chapo said that “absolutely everything” good in the country was due entirely to Frelimo’s achievements.

“People go to the hospital and forget that it was built by Frelimo. They take medicine and forget that it was imported by Frelimo. And when they feel better, they say that Frelimo has done nothing for our country. “That’s what I call ingratitude,” he said.

Opposing candidates with low motivation

Ossufo Momade, Renamo’s candidate, is considered the most promising opposition candidate. In addition to Renamo, eight smaller parties also support his presidential candidacy.

However, Momade faces an uphill battle: his campaign has not generated much enthusiasm; There is disappointment with Momade within his own party. Internal critics claim he lacks ambition and appears content to simply be the opposition leader. In this campaign, Momade was noticeably reserved and not particularly combative against Chapo.

Many Renamo members distanced themselves from Momade’s leadership and formed new parties after he succeeded charismatic leader Afonso Dhlakama at the helm of the former rebel organization in 2018.

Lutero Simango, the candidate of the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), the country’s third largest parliamentary party, has primarily campaigned for reforms in the political system. However, the MDM party also lacks the dynamism and enthusiasm needed to win the election, analysts say.

Simango repeatedly said during his election campaign that “the country is not moving forward” because the constitution does not guarantee the independence of state institutions: “Frelimo is dominant at all levels, while other parties are suppressed. Mozambique became independent in 1975, but.” “We still have a state dominated by one party. We want to create a more inclusive, participatory and democratic society,” he emphasized during his election campaign.

Venancio Mondlane is probably the most controversial of the four presidential candidates in Mozambique. Critics describe the former Renamo spokesman as an unpredictable populist. He is supported by the extra-parliamentary parties “Optimistic People for the Development of Mozambique” (Podemos) and “Democratic Revolution” (RD).

But young people in the big cities in particular see him as a beacon of hope.

He left Renamo in June 2024 and resigned his parliamentary mandate. Shortly thereafter, he announced the formation of his own party – the “Democratic Alliance Coalition” – and his candidacy for president in the October elections.

However, his new party was excluded from the parliamentary elections by the National Electoral Commission (CNE), allegedly due to procedural errors, which Mondlane described as “not fair”.

“We will fight and not bow to the established power structures,” he told DW in a recent interview.

Election commission is “well prepared”

Shortly before the election, CNE spokesman Paulo Cuinica acknowledged in an interview that there had been some problems in the run-up to the elections, particularly delays in the disbursement of state campaign funds to smaller parties. Overall, however, everything went according to plan, he assured DW.

“There is no doubt that we are ready to organize and carry out the October 9 elections, both domestically and for the diaspora. There are no significant logistical problems,” said Cuinica.

According to the CNE, more than 17 million Mozambicans are eligible to vote, including nearly 334,000 living abroad.

Ruling party candidate Daniel Chapo is widely expected to replace Filipe Nyusi as Mozambique’s next president.

Edited by: Sertan Sanderson