Mozambique nationals cast casting their vote in the general elections at the Consulate General of Mozambique in Johannesburg. After 50 years in power, Frelimo’s decision to field young Presidential candidate Daniel Chapo looks like it has paid off, the writer says. Picture: Itumeleng English / Independent Newspapers / October 9, 2024
By Kim Heller
Although the results of the Mozambique election, held on 9 October 2024, are yet to be finalised, early indications are that Frelimo will maintain its majority and that its Presidential candidate, Daniel Chapo, will win the day. On Sunday, the Mozambique Electoral Commission announced that Chapo had secured 54 percent of the vote in Maputo, and on Tuesday came confirmation of a further victory in Manica.
After 50 years in power, Frelimo’s decision to field young Presidential candidate Daniel Chapo looks like it has paid off. Younger than the party itself, the 47-year-old Chapo, has being touted as a symbol of Frelimo’s commitment to rejuvenate itself and be more responsive and attractive to younger voters.
Incumbent President, Filipe Nyusi, who has served two terms at the helm of Mozambique, is stepping down. While President Filipe Nyusi won an overwhelmingly 73 percent of the vote in the 2019 election, with the closest rival, Renamo’s Ossufo Momade, achieving just 22 percent, the last five years have seen heightened discontent. Especially among the youth, who make up the lion’s share of the country’s populace.
Joaquim Chissano, who served as Mozambique’s second President from 1986 to 2005, has described Chapo as “the ideal choice” to lead the country for the next five years. “We worked hard to find the right candidate, and fortunately we have found him,” he said in an interview with The Club of Mozambique. “His main characteristic is that he likes to work for the people, and not for his own benefit.”
Chapo served as the governor of the Inhambane Province from 2016 to 2024, and has a legal degree as well as a master’s degree in development management.
Frelimo has ruled over Mozambique since 1975, after independence from Portuguese colonial control was won. Fifty years later, the heady fragrance of liberation mingles uncomfortably with the foul scent of despair and desperation that comes with decades of conflict and economic strife. The refashioning and rejuvenation of Frelimo is a necessary make over for a party whose vintage brand of freedom has lost its allure in the current day Mozambique.
Former first lady, Graca Machel, recorded a video expressing her support for Chapo. She said, “Comrade Chapo, you are my candidate, you are the candidate of the entire Machel family, not only because you are the candidate of the Frelimo Party, but above all because we identify with the way you are renewing the contract with the people.” She broadcast her view, on independent television station STV, that Chapo “will rescue the values of Frelimo”.
If he wins, Chapo would be the fifth President of Mozambique since independence. The new President of Mozambique faces a daunting set of challenges. Mozambique is the eighth poorest country in the world, with “almost three in four citizens living on less than $2.15 per day” in 2023, according to World Bank statistics.
Unemployment is high, especially amongst the youth. Added to this is the ever-present threat of terrorism which keeps citizens in a state of heightened anxiety and unsettles country stability and sovereignty. Islamic insurgency has caused extensive economic damage to Mozambique as critical natural gas projects which could help the ailing economy have been delayed and dismantled due to security risks.
Daniel Chapo placed peace at the top of his election campaign, promising to tackle the omnipresent fear of terrorism. “Peace,” Chapo, told supporters at an election rally, “is the condition for development”.
Should he take up the Presidential mantal, Chapo would do well to place peace at the centre of his political programme. There is a pressing need for sustainable economic development in the beleaguered nation. If the multi-billion mega gas project in Cabo Delgado is restarted this year, it will provide significant economic impetus for Mozambique and strengthen economic ties and collaboration with international and regional partners.
A revitalised Mozambique would boost SADC. Sustainable social and economic development has to be weaved across all aspects of the government’s agenda, and with his development management focus, legal acumen, governance experience, and people-focused orientation, Daniel Chapo appears well equipped to make a meaningful difference.
Final election results are expected to be announced on Friday by Mozambique’s National Election Commission. There have been some allegations of electoral fraud. Non-governmental organisation, Centro de Integridade Pública, has claimed that there are as many as 900,000 ghost voters on the voter’s role.
The European Union’s observer mission expressed concern about the "notable lack of confidence in the reliability of the electoral register and on the independence of the electoral bodies”.
But it is not all bad news. Election observers have commended the peaceful nature of elections, even in Cabo Delgado, a Province which continues to bear the brunt of Islamic insurgency. The SADC election observer mission has given the election the thumbs up.
Independent candidate and former Renamo politician, Venancio Mondlane has warned that should Chapo win, there will be a national shutdown. “We will mobilise our population so that they do not accept the results” he said.
A popular figure amongst Mozambique’s largely unemployed and poor youth, Mondlane may have the muscle to lead a significant protest march. Incumbent President, Filipe Nyusi, has called for patience and tolerance. “We ask that no group of citizens incite others or issue threats.”
It looks almost certain that the fate of both Frelimo and Mozambique could soon be in the hands of the “born free” Daniel Chapo. His task is enormous, in a nation whose nights, in the words of documentary film maker, Inadelso Cossa, still smell of gunpowder.
The season of Samora Machel, the great icon of Mozambique’s liberatory struggle, and its first President after freedom was won, is long gone. But the yearning for a better tomorrow remains. The politics of nostalgia have become thick and murky with the smog of citizen disgruntlement. Daniel Chapo could well be a breath of fresh air.
* Kim Heller is a political analyst and author of ‘No White Lies: Black Politics and White Power in South Africa’
** The views expressed in this article are not necessarily the views of The African