Opposition vows it won’t tolerate election fraud as Mozambique prepares for 4-way race

Mozambique’s elections are due on 9 October, with a four-way race for the presidency.The opposition says it will not tolerate the kind of fraud it saw in the local elections last year.FRELIMO candidate Daniel Chapo has been endorsed by Graça Machel.

Mozambique’s FRELIMO is counting on a relatively young candidate to inspire, an independent has set his sights on a surprise, the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) is hopeful, and RENAMO does not intend to remain in opposition forever.

That is the four-way race for the top job as Mozambique heads for presidential and legislative elections on 9 October.

Last year’s local authority elections were littered with controversies and electoral fraud, taken before the courts. This year there were added fears that RENAMO, which was only reintegrated into society under the country’s disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) process last year after 48 years, would return to the bush.

However, its leader, Ossufo Momade (63), chose to stay within the mainstream.

He will stand against independent candidate Venancio Mondlane (50), the MDM’s Lutero Simango (64), and FRELIMO’s Daniel Chapo who, at 47, was born two years after independence from Portugal.

Momande said the opposition would not tolerate voter fraud this time around.

“When we go to the elections, they (Frelimo) provoke frauds, and this time, in this year of 2024, if they provoke fraud, if they are not going to agree with me, they will have to agree with the Mozambican population.

“I am not going to accept fraud, because we were not born to be in opposition, we also want to govern,” he said at a rally in Cabo Delgado earlier this month.

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Cabo Delgado is the volatile oil gas-rich province and the most underdeveloped part of the country.

Reports in Mozambique say President Filipe Nyusi and Momade held a series of meetings this month where there was an assurance of free and fair elections.

Chapo, the Inhambane Province governor, is riding on the party’s revolutionary history.

After winning the primaries he was hand-held by President Filipe Nyusi across the region, meeting heads of state that have close ties with Maputo.

In June and July, the Chapo-Nyusi pair met Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Rwanda’s Paul Kagame and Angola’s João Lourenço, the leader of the only other Portuguese-speaking country in southern Africa.

On Tuesday, now moving alone in charge of his campaign, Chapo paid a courtesy visit to South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, in Pretoria.

Chapo called the meeting fruitful and “aligned with our project of taking Mozambique forward”.

He’s also bringing out the big guns from the domestic scene.

Former Mozambique and also South Africa’s first lady, Graça Machel, endorsed Chapo’s candidature.

In a video message shared across Mozambique, Machel said: “Comrade Chapo, you are my candidate. You are the candidate of the entire Machel family, not only because you are the candidate of the Frelimo Party, but above all, because we identify with the way you are renewing the contract with the people.”

Machel’s first husband, Samora was Mozambique’s founding president.

He was killed in a plane crash in Mbuzini, just inside South Africa on 19 October 1986. 

Samora’s son, Samora Machel Junior also known as “Samito” is also rallying behind Chapo.

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Last week, Chapo took his campaign to Malehice, Limpopo district, which falls under Gaza province. It’s the home area of former president Joaquim Chissano.

Chissano attended the rally and urged the people to “vote for him and support him because being a president is not easy.”

Mondlane is a former FRELIMO member. He broke ranks with the party when he failed to win in its succession battles.

Now his main rallying point is to end corruption in the country and to negotiate better deals with international investors. 

During a rally in Angónia a district in the northern part of Tete Province in the central region, he said: “This attempt to sell Mozambique is over, and I’m here to tell those who wish to sell the country.”

He added that the conflict in Cabo Delgado was due to the government’s failure to address local grievances and secure sound business contracts.

MDM, a breakaway of Renamo, was largely viewed as the second biggest political party before the arrival of Renamo in civilian politics.

In the local authority elections, the party only got one seat.

During a series of rallies in Malema and Ribaué, situated in Nampula province, he said his party would put employment creation at the centre of its government if voted into power.

All candidates blame the country’s woes on FRELIMO’s 49 years in power. 

In 2022, the country was dogged by the tuna bonds scandal which saw former finance minister Manuel Chang extradited from South Africa to the United States to face corruption charges.

According to official statistics, there are more than 17 million voters who are registered to vote, including 333 839 in the diaspora.

The News24 Africa Desk is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation. The stories produced through the Africa Desk and the opinions and statements that may be contained herein do not reflect those of the Hanns Seidel Foundation.

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