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Low-key Mozambique election ends as it began - quietly President Joaquim
Chissano, in his capacity as head of state, joined other regional leaders at
the Southern African Trade and Investment Summit here in Maputo today and
never once referred to the gruelling 45-day campaign which he had just
concluded yesterday with a huge rally in Maputo. Frelimo, Mozambique's
ruling party for the last 24 years, faces a stiff test for control of the
250-seat Assembly of the Republic, facing off against its perennial
opponents, the former Renamo rebel movement running in this election with a
coalition of 10 small parties. Afonso Dhlakama, who is Chissano's only
opponent, is counting on his coalition and Frelimo's many years in power to
demand a change. He ended his campaign with a major rally in his stronghold
of Beira, a port city in central Mozambique. Few expect him to win the
presidency against the popular 60-year-old Chissano but if enough people
consider Frelimo to have been around too long, Renamo could end up with at
least enough seats in parliament to make Chissano's legislative programme
difficult. Mozambique uses a
List-Proportional Representation voting system which requires all registered
parties to present a list of candidates to the electorate. The electorate
votes for a party, rather than a specific candidate and parties receive seats
in the Assembly of the Nation in proportion to their overall share of the
national vote. In Mozambique, a party must win a minimum of five percent of
the national vote to obtain a seat. In the last election
Frelimo garnered 129 seats to Renamo's 112, with nine seats going to a
coalition called the Democratic Union. This prevented Frelimo, which formed
the executive (cabinet), from getting the two-thirds majority required to
amend the constitution and pass important legislation. Critics say Renamo
used its votes in a negative way to block amendments to the 1990 constitution
which the country needs to advance a progressive agenda. Predictions are that a
similar "hung" parliament could occur after the second multi-party
elections this coming weekend. Both major parties and their leaders - there
are 10 other parties and three coalitions also contesting parliamentary seats
- have agreed they will peacefully accept the democratic will of the people. Yesterday in all the new,
modern downtown hotels, election observers from the region, continent and
internationally were bustling around holding meetings, receptions and getting
ready to travel out to the hinterland where conditions and infrastructure are
much less comfortable and efficient than the booming capital city. One wit at
the SADC Parliamentary Forum's reception last night said "there must be
at least one observer for every voter." In fact there are about 600
official observers accredited by the independent National Election Commission
(CNE) but more are still to come. The CNE said this morning
that based on the 1997 census, 85.5 percent of eligible voters had registered
, about 7.1 million people in a highly-praised operation that occurred
between 20 July and 17 September. Some opposition politicians accused the CNE
of ignoring remote areas of the country. In fact, statistics show that the
lowest rate of registration was in the capital. The 15-member CNE was
appointed in March. It is made up of eight person nominated by Frelimo, six
by Renamo and one by the Democratic Union. Its chairperson Is Jamisse Taimo,
a Methodist pastor and vice-chancellor of the Higher Institute of
International Relations. The election process will
be similar to 1994 but changed laws to increase transparency and speed up
counting will likely bring the results in more quickly and smoothly. The
election is to be over two days but can be extended to three if voter demand
warrants.. Voters will get two ballot papers, one for president and one for
parliament. Each paper will have pictures, party symbols and names.
Illiteracy is high in rural areas so voters can mark their ballot with a
fingerprint. All voters will have a plastic registration card with their
photograph and registration number and must cast their ballot at a specific
polling station. A maximum of 14 days is
allocated for the final official results but CNE officials expect it could be
done in about a week. The total cost of the
elections will be US$42 million, about 90 percent of which comes from donors.
This is considerably less than 1994 which cost some US$63.5 million. While the CNE oversees the
electoral process and makes policy, the technical work is done by the
Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE). Rules were approved
before the start of registration where nominees of the major political
parties are incorporated into the STAE - nine at the Maputo headquarters and
five in each of the 11 provinces and two in each district for a total of 360.
The political positions are allocated according to parliamentary
representation. This somewhat cumbersome
process was done to accommodate Renamo which boycotted 1998 local elections
because of alleged bias in STAE. While there have been
persistent reports of random violence, the atmosphere in the country is
generally calm. No deaths have been reported and most violence seems to have
been caused by overly-enthusiastic or vengeful party organizers. Taimo says security for
voters will be in place but he assured journalists that it would not
intimidate voters. Mozambique has had a
checkered history. It became a Portuguese colony in 1505 and exploited, with
forced labour, for its gold and ivory, as well as being a source for slaves. Guerilla groups began
opposing Portuguese rule in the early 1960s and combined under the Frelimo
banner to fight a liberation war. As Lisbon's overseas empire began to
collapse, internal self-government was granted in 1964 and full independence
a year later with guerilla leader Samora Machel becoming first president and
Chissano his prime minister. The country, having gone
through a brutal civil war, was then faced with a mass exodus of hundreds of
thousands of Portuguese settlers, leaving no trained professionals in
economic positions and racist governments in neighbouring South Africa and
Rhodesia whose economies were larger and necessary for Mozambican trade.
Mozambique also supported and provided bases for the Zimbabwean liberation
struggle until that country won independence in 1980. No sooner than one threat
was dealt with, Moambique had to face the twin perils of severe drought and
increasingly brutal attacks against civilians and railways and other vital
infratsructure by the Mozambique National Resistance (MNR) or Renamo as it
was known. This group had first been funded and supported by the white settler
regime in Rhodesia and later taken over covertly, but substantially, by
apartheid South Africa. Machel, realizing he must
deal with South Africa signed the Nkomati Accords in 1984 in which South
Africa would cease support for Renamo and Mozambique would not provide bases
for the African National Congress (ANC). Machel kept his side of the deal but
South Africa continued its support of Renamo who concentrated on terrorizing
the civilian population and attacking Mozambique's vital but vulnerable
transportation system. In 1986, Machel died in an
air crash near the South African border under suspicious circumstances. A
month later Frelimo's central committee elected the foreign minister and
former prime minister, Joaquim Chissano as his successor. South Africa continued to
arm and support the MNR until 1990 when a partial ceasefire was agreed upon,
by which time, however, enormous damage had been done to Mozambique's economy
and infrastructure. One-party rule by Frelimo was abandoned and peace talks
began with Renamo in 1991, ending in a peace accord in 1992 signed by
Chissano and Dhlakama, to be monitored by 6,000 UN troops. Multi-party
elections were held for the first time in 1994. Since then, despite being
the poorest country in world, Mozambique has built an envious economic
recovery and reconstruction with the highest rate of growth in the region and
the lowest inflation. Investment, especially from South Africa and Portugal,
has brought new industry, electrification, transport corridors and tourism.
Recently the International Monetary Fund (IMF) wiped off US$3 billion from
the country's current debt under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries
initiative (HIPC). Despite being the SADC
leader in economic growth, Mozambique faces massive problems especially in
the remote rural areas where most of the 15.3 million people live in poverty,
illiteracy, ill-health and with a fragile infrastructure. This election will determine who the people feel best qualified to deal with these problems. (SARDC) |
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[Elections '99 || Sustainable Democracy || SARDC] Mail Editorial for comments and queries. |
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