Mozambique is set to hold its presidential, legislative and provincial elections on October 15, 2019. The date was unveiled amid negotiations on consolidating peace between the government and former rebels, the Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo).
Renamo and the ruling political party, the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), fought a 16-year-long civil war that ended with a peace deal in 1992. However, the Renamo leader, Afonso Dhlakama, backtracked on this deal in 2013 as his supporters waged a new low-level insurgency. In December 2016, Dhlakama announced a truce with the government which has still not culminated in a formal peace accord.
Dhlakama and Filipé Nyusi, the President of Mozambique, have agreed on constitutional reforms that will decentralise power. Some of these reforms, currently under debate in parliament, will allow voters to directly elect provincial governors, who are currently appointed by the president.
The Renamo party is the main opposition, which has maintained an armed wing since the end of the country’s civil war, is running in the municipal vote for the first time in 10 years. Ahead of next year’s general election, the party hopes for a breakthrough which will allow them pursue greater decentralisation of power and better integration of their supporters into the police and military.
These landmark local elections will test the success of decentralisation measures that have been agreed with the armed opposition.
After the election last weekend, Renamo accused the government of falsifying local election results in several areas, warning that such a move could prompt it to abandon their peace talks with the ruling party, a situation the government will do well to avoid as the negotiations helped to end three years of violence between government troops and Renamo rebels.
“We do not want war but we also do not accept any attempt to change the popular will,” Renamo’s acting leader, Ossufo Momade, told reporters.
Although the official results have not been published yet, Renamo says they have been cheated of victory in one major city and three other towns, accusing election officials of tampering with the results.
“If the popular vote is not respected, Renamo will break off the negotiations and the consequences will be entirely the responsibility of President Filipé Nyusi and the Frelimo Party,” he said.
Partial results from a third of Mozambique’s 53 municipalities, released on Thursday, gave Frelimo a clear lead, although Renamo claims to have won in dozens of areas, including in Matulo, the country’s most heavily-populated city.
Renamo has maintained an armed wing since the civil war, and unrest erupted again between 2013 and 2016. The final outcome of the results, when announced by Paul Cuinica, the spokesman for the National Election Commission, will determine whether or not the rebels will pick up their guns again.
