Mozambique holds general elections with the economic crisis and jihadism as main factors

Chapo aspires to succeed Nyusi and maintain Frelimo’s political dominance, which has spanned since independence in 1975.

Oct. 8 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The population of Mozambique is called to the polls this Wednesday for presidential and parliamentary elections in which violence by jihadist groups in the north of the country has been one of the main issues of the campaign and that the governmental Liberation Front of Mozambique (Frelimo) aspires to prolong its position of dominance after nearly half a century in power.

Around 17 million people are called to the polls for the elections, from which a new president will emerge – who will replace the current president, Filipe Nyusi, who has already completed his maximum of two terms at the head of the country – and a new Parliament, as well as new provincial assemblies.

In the case of the presidential elections, the Frelimo candidate, Daniel Chapo, appears as a favorite to replace Nyusi, while the prominent opponent Ossufo Momade, of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), aspires to snatch the scepter from him and put an end to control of the historic socialist party in the African country.

Chapo, 47, is the first candidate presented by Frelimo that was born after the war against the former metropolis, Portugal, which led to the country’s independence in 1975 at the hands of the party, founded in 1962 by Eduardo Mondlane as Marxist nationalist movement against the authoritarian regime in the then colony.

For his part, Momade appears as his main rival at the polls, after becoming leader of Renamo following the death in 2018 of the historic head of the formation, Afonso Dhlakama. The politician signed a peace agreement with Nyusi in 2019 to end decades of hostilities.

Momade already ran in the elections that same year, when he denounced fraud on the part of Nyusi, although he remained committed to the aforementioned agreement, reached after years of sporadic clashes in areas of the interior of Mozambique since 2014 between the security forces and Renamo, founded as an anti-communist rebel group after independence.

Along with Chapo and Momade, Venancio Mondlane, who is running as an independent after leaving Renamo once the party leader confirmed that he would run at the polls, and Lutero Simango, who heads the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), will be on the ballot. the third most important formation in the African country.

Mondlane, candidate of the Optimist Party for the Development of Mozambique (Vamos), has seen his support grow in recent years and, in fact, ran last year in the local elections in the capital, Maputo, in which he claimed to have won. with the victory, amid complaints about alleged fraud to benefit the Frelimo candidate, Rasaque Manhique.

JIHADIST VIOLENCE IN CABO DELGADO

The four candidates have put the fight against insecurity among their priorities, given that the security forces have been facing an increase in insurgency operations in Cabo Delgado (north) since 2017, a situation capitalized by the jihadist group Islamic State to expand its influence in the area.

The attacks, initially claimed by a group called Al Shabaab – which means ‘the young’ in Arabic, unrelated to the group of the same name in Somalia, linked to Al Qaeda – became carried out in the name of the Islamic State in Central Africa (ISCA), which also operates in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

To date, insecurity has resulted in thousands of deaths, while more than 670,000 people remain displaced in the north of the country due to the conflict, according to data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), a which adds up to an increase in food insecurity in relation to this crisis.

The agency estimates that between 2.6 and 3.3 million people are acutely food insecure, including 220,000 in a particularly fragile situation in Mocimboa da Praia and Meluco. In addition, a significant number of medical centers have been damaged or destroyed, making the response to the humanitarian crisis in this area of ​​the African country difficult.

However, the Mozambican authorities have defended that in recent years they have managed to effectively confront the jihadist threat, in which they have had the support of special forces from Rwanda and troops from the Southern African Development Community ( SADC) deployed to support offensives against ISCA.

ECONOMIC CRISIS AND CORRUPTION

On the other hand, among the main problems facing the country, apart from jihadist violence in the north, are the economic crisis and the impact of a serious corruption scandal that broke out in 2016 and affected several former senior Mozambican charges.

On an economic level, Mozambique has been shaken by the impact of the ISCA attacks in Cabo Delgado, where several gas projects by companies such as TotalEnergies are located, which have sometimes been forced to declare force majeure at their facilities in Palma due to violence, which has also caused delays in a project by Exxon Mobil and Eni.

In addition, Maputo is still facing the scandal surrounding bribes allegedly paid by Privinvest to Mozambican officials and Credit Suisse in exchange for contracts and loans in the fishing industry, which caused a collapse of the country’s currency and unleashed an unprecedented crisis after after it came out in 2016.

The outbreak of the plot led to trials in the United States and Mozambique and resulted in the sentence of twelve years in prison against a son of former president Armando Guebuza and several former senior officials of the country, in the midst of the suspension of the delivery of funds by part of international partners in the face of the blow to Maputo’s reputation.

The World Bank details on its website that, although inflation moderated in 2023 after reaching its maximum in the previous five years in 2022, delays in liquefied natural gas projects could “undermine growth expectations”, with an increase “disproportionate” to poverty in urban areas in recent years.

CLIMATE CHANGE

The country is also facing the consequences of climate change, including phenomena such as the drought caused by ‘El Niño’ and several cyclones that have devastated part of the Mozambican territory in recent years.

OCHA recalls that the country is “regularly” exposed to cyclones, floods and droughts, which have caused significant damage to infrastructure. Among the main disasters is tropical cyclone ‘Freddy’, which hit the country twice in 2023, leaving more than 800,000 affected.

In addition, droughts are increasingly frequent in Mozambique, a country of about 34 million inhabitants in which 80 percent of the population depends on agriculture. In this sense, the World Bank also identifies “climate shocks” as one of the main risks for the country’s economy and its efforts to achieve a boost in social development.

In total, about 2.3 million people need humanitarian aid in the African country, although OCHA highlights that only 37 percent of the 413.4 million dollars (about 377 million euros) requested to finance the response to the crisis in the country has been delivered to date.

All of this means that the country continues to be one of the poorest in the world, with 68.2 percent of Mozambicans living below the poverty line, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which highlights that only 5. 4 percent of the population has social services.