Provincial Assembly:  Late 2008 or early 2009

Description of Electoral System:

The President of Mozambique is both Head of State and Government; and is elected by an absolute majority through a universal adult franchise. The President may only serve two consecutive five year terms, but becomes eligible for re-election after the lapse of a further five years. The President appoints and dismisses the Prime Minister and exercises executive power directly or through the Council of Ministers.

The Assembly of the Republic consists of 250 members elected every five years by proportional representation with a 5% entry threshold. 248 seats are elected from the 12 provinces, each acting as a constituency with the number of seats allocated to each province based on population distribution. Two members are elected by expatriates, one each for Africa and Europe.

Electoral Systems Snapshot

(Courtesy of International IDEA)

*Click on links for definitions

WANT MORE ELECTION RELATED STATS FOR MOZAMBIQUE? Go to "election databases" on the left-hand menu of this page OR comparative data on the right-hand menu and choose your area of interest.

Politics in Mozambique

Event

Workshop: Training in voter's roll testing methodologies

EISA will be working in collaboration with the Mozambican Electoral Observatory to conduct a workshop on 12 March 2008 in Mozambique

Mozambique’s independence from Portugal in 1975 was followed by a bloody 16-year of civil war waged between Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (FRELIMO) and the Resistência Nacional Moçambicana (RENAMO). FRELIMO, which emerged from the militant freedom movement and took power after a bitter and protracted military struggle with the Portuguese, found support primarily from the Warsaw Pact countries. In 1976 Mozambique closed its border with the settler state of Rhodesia, and began to provide material and moral support for anti-Rhodesian guerrillas already operating from within its borders. RENAMO was founded by the Rhodesian government to destabilise Mozambique, but later drew its support from the South African apartheid government. 

The military pressure exerted by South Africa led to the Nkomati Accord of 1984 in which Mozambique committed itself to curbing anti-Apartheid military activities in the country in exchange for the termination of South African assistance to RENAMO. Large areas of the countryside were devastated by war and drought, and several towns were besieged by RENAMO forces. South Africa reneged on their side of the undertaking and the situation in the country became very difficult, prompting the government to embark on negotiations with RENAMO.

The war ended with a General Peace Accord (GPA) signing by the warring parties in the early 1990’s. Sustained high levels of economic growth followed, but proceeded from a low base and its benefits are unevenly distributed, so that the majority of the population remains extremely poor. Between 1992 and 2005 three general and two municipal elections were held, all of them won by FRELIMO party and its candidates. The opposition, led by RENAMO either boycotted the elections or contested the results and relations between the two parties have been conflictual and marked by mutual suspicion.

Previous elections

DID YOU KNOW? At 34.8%, Mozambique has the highest level of representation of women in parliament in the SADC.

In the 2004 Assembly of the Republic election national two groups dominated electoral campaigning. These were the ruling FRELIMO party and the opposition RENAMO-Electoral Union coalition (RENAMO-UE); the Electoral Union consisted of 11 small parties, with RENAMO being the leading partner. FRELIMO won 62.0% of the vote and 64% of the seats, RENAMO-UE won 29.7% and 36% of the seats. 18 other parties contested but none achieved the 5% vote threshold necessary to quality for representation (For more details see: 2004 Assembly of the Republic national results).

In the concurrent Presidential election FRELIMO’s Armando Guebuza won 63.7% of the votes, followed by Afonso Dhlakama of RENAMO-UE with 31.7%; three other candidates shared the remainder of the vote (For more details see: 2004 Presidential election results).

Next elections

The first Provincial Assembly elections will be held in late 2008 or early 2009, followed by local government elections in 2008. The next presidential and Assembly of the Republic elections are due in December 2009.