Provincial elections in Mozambique 2009
The 2009 provincial elections were held in Mozambique, Southeast Africa, on October 28, 2009, at the same time as the presidential and parliamentary elections. It was the first ever elections for the representations of the provinces of Mozambique . The legal requirements for this were only created in 2004. Four political parties ( FRELIMO , RENAMO , Movimento Democrático de Moçambique and a smaller party) were approved by the CNE electoral commission. However, the results of these elections were only of limited informative value, as in 64 (other sources: 67) out of 141 electoral districts only one party could be elected.
Democratic standards
The main reason for the undemocratic restriction of the options in the provincial elections was a complex and unclear network of regulations for the admission of parties to these elections, which were held for the first time, which were supplemented by less clear regulations five months before and only two weeks before the start of the registration process .
However, the problem was exacerbated by the fact that the main opposition party RENAMO concentrated on its chairman's election campaign for the presidential election and neglected registration for the provincial elections in the individual electoral districts. RENAMO candidacies were therefore not accepted by the electoral commission throughout the country. However, RENAMO made no attempt to exhaust legal options against it. A subsequent boycott attempt in the form of an instruction from RENAMO boss Afonso Dhlakama to the MPs of his party not to take their places in the provincial parliaments gradually failed because of the MPs who did not want to give up their mandates.
Blank ballot papers in Sofala Province
In addition, the party organization, particularly in the province of Sofala , a former RENAMO stronghold, suffered from bloodletting by the newly founded Movimento Democrático de Moçambique (MDM) party, which at the beginning of 2009 had mainly consisted of former RENAMO supporters and functionaries . In this province, RENAMO was only eligible for two of the 13 electoral districts. The result was an unusually high number of blank ballots in the provincial elections in Sofala. Obviously these had been given by people who, because of their professional position, were exposed to strong pressure to vote, but who did not want to exercise their right to vote under the circumstances. In the Caia constituency, for example, where RENAMO boss Dhlakama won the majority of the votes in the presidential election, but RENAMO was not allowed to participate in the provincial elections, a good 22 percent of voters gave blank slips of paper and 15 percent invalidated their ballot papers.
Official results
Under the above conditions, the following results say more about the conditions of the elections than about the will of the voters:
Under these conditions, FRELIMO won in 137 of 141 electoral districts, 67 of them with 100% of the votes, as no other party had received approval. Of the 74 constituencies in which an alternative to FRELIMO was on the ballot, Frelimo won over 90% of the votes in 12 constituencies, between 70 and 80% in 17 constituencies, between 60 and 70% in 13 and up to 50% in 10 constituencies 60%. An opposition party won in four electoral districts: Renamo in Alto Molocue , Milange and Morrumbala in the province of Zambezia , the MDM in the city of Beira , where Daviz Simango , party leader and founder of the MDM, is mayor. FRELIMO therefore has an absolute majority in all provincial representations:
| Seats in the provincial representations of Mozambique in 2009 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Surname | FRELIMO | RENAMO | MDM |
| Cabo Delgado | 73 | 8th | - |
| Gaza (province) | all | - | - |
| Inhambane | all | - | - |
| Manica | 61 | 19th | - |
| Maputo city | ? | ? | ? |
| Maputo | 75 | 5 | - |
| Nampula | 78 | 11 | 2 |
| Niassa | 66 | 2 | 2 |
| Sofala | 59 | 1 | 20th |
| Tete | 75 | 5 | - |
| Zambezia | 57 | 31 | - |
| Source: | allafrica.com | ||
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- ↑ a b European Union Election Observation Mission - Mozambique 2009 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 96 kB). Retrieved November 20, 2009 (English)
- ↑ http://www.poptel.org.uk/mozambique-news/newsletter/aim395.html#story3
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ http://allafrica.com/stories/200911161901.html
