Local elections in Mozambique 2013
The 2013 local elections in Mozambique were held on November 20, 2013. Both the mayor's offices and the mandates for the local parliaments were available for election. Voter registration took place from May 25 to June 23, 2013 in 53 municipalities (compared to 43 municipalities in 2008). As expected, the ruling party FRELIMO won almost all of the mayor's seats. While the previous largest opposition party, RENAMO, boycotted the elections and limited itself to militant rebellion, the new opposition party, Movimento Democrático de Moçambique , was able to do so(MDM) achieved significant successes across the board, including the mayoral seats in the third and fourth largest cities in the country. Overall, the new opposition party received around 30% of the votes cast. There have been complaints in several constituencies about irregularities in favor of the ruling party FRELIMO. The investigation of these allegations can also be seen as an expression of the opposition parties' significantly improved control possibilities within the electoral process compared to the last local elections in 2008 , although most of the complaints were dismissed because of formal errors by the plaintiffs. In Quelimane , however, the first result, after which FRELIMO had also won here, was corrected directly in favor of the opposition MDM. In Guruéand Nampula , the original election result was canceled in favor of FRELIMO and new elections were announced, which ended with a victory for the opposition party MDM.
Participating localities
Local elections have been held in Mozambique , Southeast Africa, every five years since 1998 . In 1998 and 2003 there were still 33 municipalities (municipalities) and in the municipal elections in 2003 43 localities in which voting was allowed, in 2013 the voters in 53 municipalities were given the opportunity to elect their local representative and a mayor.
Prior to the elections in 2013 the Council of Ministers had decided to Parliament the creation of 10 additional municipios propose: Boane in Maputo province , Praia do Bilene in the province of Gaza , Quissico in the province of Inhambane , Nhamatanda in the province of Sofala , Sussundenga in the province Manica , Nhamayábué in the province of Tete , Maganja da Costa in the province of Zambezia , Malema in the province of Nampula , Chiure in the province of Cabo Delgado and Mandimba in the province of Niassa .
In these localities, residents who were entitled to vote were allowed to vote for a municipal representation for the first time.
Participating parties
Had submitted voting documents:
- FRELIMO
- Movimento Democrático de Moçambique (MDM, "Democratic Movement of Mozambique")
- Partido Humanitário de Moçambique (PAHUMO, "Humanitarian Party of Mozambique")
- Partido Trabalhista (PT, "Workers' Party")
- Partido para a Paz, Democracia e Desenvolvimento (PDD, "Party for Democracy and Development")
- Partido Independente de Moçambique (PIMO, "Independent Mozambican Party")
- Partido de Reconciliação Nacional de Moçambique (PANAMO, "Party for National Renewal") (excluded for formal reasons)
- Partido Progresso Liberal de Moçambique (PPLM, "Mozambican Liberal-Progressive Party")
- A coalition of: Ecologista ("Ecologists") and Movimento Patriótico para a Democracia (MPD, "Patriotic Movement for Democracy") (not allowed for formal reasons)
as well as five local citizen lists:
- Juntos pela Cidade (JPC) and SINFORTÉCNICA in Maputo
- ASSEMONA in Nampula
- ASTROGAZA in Xai-Xai (excluded for formal reasons)
- ANATURMA in Manhica
Of these parties and lists, only Frelimo, PDD, PIMO, PT and JPC had already participated in the local elections in Mozambique in 2008. The ecologists had been part of another coalition. In the towns of Manhiça, Beira, Cuamba and Milange, parties or lists won seats in 2008 that were no longer running in 2013. The most successful of the unconsidered lists in 2008 was the Grupo para a Democracia da Beira (GDB), which had won seven seats in Beira and provided a vice-president there. The group blamed “Internal Differences” for failing to register for the 2013 election.
Boycott by RENAMO
RENAMO , up to then the largest opposition party in the country, has been refusing to participate in any kind of election preparations since 2012 , as long as the electoral law is not changed in such a way that this party has a veto right within the electoral process. However, RENAMO had shown little interest in local and provincial elections in recent years. The former guerrilla organization RENAMO, which was heavily geared towards its party leader Dhlakama , had concentrated its voter turnout on the respective presidential elections in the country and thus continuously lost influence on the lower parliamentary levels. In August 2013, RENAMO officially declared its boycott of the 2013 local elections and refused to attend meetings of the CNE electoral commission. RENAMO's call for a boycott was evidently only obeyed in large parts of the province of Nampula. The total voter turnout was about 46% of that of 2008.
Results
Results calculated on the national average
| Political party | % (Seats) 2008 | % (Seats) 2013 | Mayor 2008 | Mayor 2013 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FRELIMO | 80% (816) | 69% (842) | 42 | 49 |
| RENAMO | 19% (195) | - | - | - |
| MDM | - | 30% (365) | - | 4th |
| Other parties | 1% (14) | < 1% (9) | 1 (more independent) | - |
| Total seats | 1025 | 1216 | 43 | 53 |
FRELIMO provides the mayor and the majority in the municipal assembly in 49 of the 53 municipalities. MDM provides the mayor in Beira , Nampula and Quelimane . In Gurué, the election must be repeated in favor of FRELIMOs due to serious violations of the electoral law. However, MDM was unable to assert itself here by directly awarding the victory to its own party, even if this victory could be proven by copying individual results of the voting districts. In Beira, MDM has provided the mayor of Quelimane since 2008 and, due to by-elections in 2011, who has now been confirmed. In Nampula, an MDM candidate won this post after repeating the election due to various irregularities. In Nyamabue , where MDM had calculated a good chance, the party suffered a defeat with only 8%. None of the small parties was able to win a majority in a local assembly or to appoint the mayor of one place. However, the ASSEMONA list won the second most votes in Angoche , relegating MDM to third place.
However, the results so far cannot be seen as a triumph for FRELIMO. The previous largest opposition party Renamo had not started and the opposition party MDM, which was only founded in 2008, won an average of around 30% of the votes nationwide (compared to a RENAMO result of 19% in 2008) and significant successes below the threshold of the majority in the mayoral elections:
- MDM candidate Venancio Mondlane received almost 40% of the vote in the capital, Maputo . For comparison: In 2008 the FRELIMO candidate David Simango still won 86% of the votes here, compared to 14% for his opponent from Renamo at the time
- in Alto Molocue the MDM candidate got 48%
- in Gorongosa to 43%
- in Mocuba , the MDM candidate just lost 10,390 votes against the FRELIMO candidate who received 10,817 votes
- in Marromeu the FRELIMO candidate received 53% of the vote, the MDM candidate 48%
- in Chimoio the ratio of FRELIMO / MDM candidate was 53% to 47%
- in Gurué , the FRELIMO candidate was only one vote ahead of the MDM candidate. The case was decided in favor of FRELIMO on the basis of the invalidated votes by the National Electoral Commission in Maputo. The Constitutional Council confirmed the decision of the electoral commission to reject the MDM complaint due to formal errors, but recognized such serious violations of the electoral law that the elections in Gurué had to be repeated. The new election resulted in a clear victory for MDM's mayoral candidate and also a majority of the seats in the city council for MDM.
In all of the above results, MDM significantly outperforms the 2003 results of the largest opposition party to date, Renamo . RENAMO's call to boycott seems to have been largely followed by RENAMO supporters only in the province of Nampula . While the former RENAMO strongholds were now MDM strongholds in the other provinces, MDM was unable to achieve the RENAMO results of 2008 in Nacala Porto, Ilha de Moçambique and some smaller coastal towns in the Nampula province.
Accusation of electoral fraud in individual locations and election cancellations
On November 25, 2013, MDM filed a formal protest against the results in ten cities: Maputo, Matola, Beira, Chimoio, Marromeu, Gorongosa, Quelimane, Mocuba, Gurué and Milange. According to information provided by this party, parallel counts have demonstrably produced significantly different results and, for FRELIMO, worse results. The ASSEMONA list, which received the second most votes in Angoche, made a formal protest against the local result on November 20th. Here were u. a. shortly before the polling stations were closed, a number of pre-filled ballot papers for FRELIMO were found. In Gondola, election observers criticized the fact that in some polling stations there were an unusually high number of invalid votes and, at the same time, conspicuously high percentage results for FRELIMO. The suspicion is in the room that election workers had made large numbers of ballot papers for MDM invalid by adding additions.
In Nampula, the election of the mayor was canceled by the National Elections Commission (CNE) because the name of a candidate was missing on the ballot papers printed in South Africa , the election of the local assembly deputies was canceled because the safety regulations were not observed. Ballot boxes with ballot papers must be under constant observation by party representatives until they are counted. In Nampula, however, such ballot boxes were left unattended overnight in a department store, and party representatives only received the key the next morning.
In Quelimane, official papers with the counting results of various polling stations had disappeared. Here MDM took advantage of a law passed after the last local election and applied its own certified copies of these counting results. According to the MDM, after these results in Quelimane, the party won both the mayor's seat and a majority of the votes in the local assembly.
In Gurué, the CNE national electoral commission confirmed the election result in favor of FRELIMO, as the plaintiff, MDM, had committed formal errors. The Constitutional Council confirmed this decision, but recognized such serious violations of the electoral law that both elections in Gurué, the one for the mayor's office and the one for the city council, were annulled. These elections will be repeated.
Overall, however, these protests also show that the opposition has significantly improved options for controlling and correcting the election process.
Web links
- Joseph Hanlon: 2013 local election bulletins
Individual evidence
- ^ Mozambique Political Process Bulletin. No. LE-1, May 15, 2013, edited by Joseph Hanlon
- ^ Mozambique Political Process Bulletin. Issue 54, part 1 of 2 parts, December 23, 2013
- ^ Mozambique Political Process Bulletin. No. LE-67, January 23, 2014, edited by Joseph Hanlon
- ↑ Joseph Hanlon: 2013 Local Elections Mozambique political process bulletin . No. LE-72a, February 9, 2014 - 02h30 (PDF)
- ^ Mozambique Political Process Bulletin . No. LE-1, May 15, 2013, edited by Joseph Hanlon
- ↑ open.ac.uk (PDF) Local_Elections_Bulletin_31-18Aug2013, accessed December 1, 2013
- ↑ open.ac.uk (PDF) Local_Elections_Bulletin_31-18Aug2013, accessed December 1, 2013
- ↑ open.ac.uk (PDF) Local_Elections_Bulletin_31-18Aug2013, accessed December 1, 2013
- ↑ a b open.ac.uk (PDF) accessed on November 27, 2013.
- ↑ open.ac.uk (PDF)
- ↑ Mozambique political process bulletin Number LE-2 May 17, 2013, edited by Joseph Hanlon
- ^ Mozambique Political Process Bulletin. Issue 54, part 1 of 2 parts, December 23, 2013
- ↑ 2013 Local Elections Mozambique Political Process Bulletin. No. LE-61, December 5, 2013
- ^ Mozambique Political Process Bulletin. No. LE-67, January 23, 2014, edited by Joseph Hanlon
- ^ Mozambique Political Process Bulletin. No. LE-54, November 25, 2013
- ^ Mozambique Political Process Bulletin. No. LE-51, November 21, 2013
- ↑ Joseph Hanlon: 2013 Local Elections Mozambique Political Process Bulletin . No. LE-72a February 9, 2014 - 02h30
- ↑ open.ac.uk (PDF) accessed on December 2, 2013
- ^ Mozambique Political Process Bulletin. No. LE-54, November 25, 2013
- ^ Mozambique Political Process Bulletin. No. LE-53, November 23, 2013
- ^ Mozambique Political Process Bulletin. No. LE-53, November 23, 2013
- ↑ Mozambique Political Process Bulletin No. LE-67, January 23, 2014, edited by Joseph Hanlon
