The Economist: Mozambique’s ruling party wins a dodgy election

In Mozambique, political violence escalated as lawyer Elvino Dias and opposition official Paulo Guambe were shot dead while challenging alleged electoral fraud favoring the ruling Frelimo party. Dias, representing opposition candidate Venâncio Mondlane, had warned of looming threats. As the official results show a Frelimo landslide, protests grow, fueled by economic discontent and demands for change. Yet, under Frelimo's shadow, Mozambique's young generation faces an uphill fight for freedom and justice..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here..From The Economist, published under licence. The original article can be found on www.economist.com.© 2024 The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved..The Economist.___STEADY_PAYWALL___.Two opposition figures were murdered days before the result was announced.He feared he was a marked man. In April Elvino Dias wrote on Facebook that death squads were plotting to kill him. But as a lawyer for an opposition leader, in an election year, he felt it was his duty to speak out. "In a country as upside down as ours, truth and justice have their price," he wrote, "and the biggest price is the death of the one who says it.".Those words echoed like bullets on October 19th, when Mr Dias was shot dead in his car in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. Paulo Guambe, an opposition party official, was killed in the seat beside him. Police have not found the gunmen. But the timing of the murders suggests a motive: Mr Dias was preparing a legal challenge to the outcome of this month's general election. His client, the independent candidate Venâncio Mondlane, has pointed the finger at state security forces and called on his supporters to "paralyse the country". State officials have warned against spreading "disinformation"..To nobody's surprise, the official results of the election, published on October 24th, showed a big majority for Frelimo, the ruling party, and Daniel Chapo, its presidential candidate. Mr Chapo received 71% of votes. Mr Mondlane was placed a distant second with 20%. The candidate for Renamo, the traditional opposition, won 6%, slumping to third. It once fought a civil war against Frelimo, but the old foes have learned to get along..Few think the numbers are credible. In some provinces the electoral commission registered more voters than there are adults. An EU observer mission found that results from some polling districts were altered. Frelimo, which has ruled Mozambique since independence in 1975, has used state resources to tilt the playing field ever since it first allowed elections in 1994. Edson Cortez of Mais Integridade, a civil-society coalition, says the party has chosen to get better at fraud rather than improve its running of the country..Mozambique's economy grew quickly for two decades after the civil war ended in 1992. But Mozambicans are poorer today than they were in 2016, when more than $1bn of secret state-backed borrowing was exposed. The scandal sank the economy and convulsed politics. Investigations revealed that officials had pocketed millions of dollars in bribes, leading to court cases on three continents..Politicians and their cronies are involved in businesses of varying legality, from cement production to the heroin trade. Their economic stranglehold has fuelled resentment in the north, where a jihadist insurgency has thrown a huge natural-gas project into limbo. The government was relying on gas revenues to pull the country out of its funk..That sorry record compounds the frustrations of young people, who struggle to find decent work. They want change, and will follow anyone who promises it. Right now that is Mr Mondlane, a charismatic engineer with a knack for social media. "What he brings is the idea of freedom," says Xicanekiço Mate, a Podemos party organiser. "What he is doing is historic.".Opposition leaders in Africa's authoritarian states know that the real battle begins after polling day. Mr Mondlane has a familiar menu of options. Protests have already erupted, and he is calling for more after the result is announced. But street activism is hard to sustain in a country where many people live hand-to-mouth and the state has no qualms about shooting them. The opposition will probably mount a court challenge, too. The murders of Messrs Dias and Guambe do not augur well for success..Assassinations have been a recurring motif of Frelimo rule. Carlos Cardoso, a journalist, was shot dead in 2000 after investigating corruption. In 2019 an activist named Anastacio Matavel was killed after training election observers..Mr Chapo has condemned the latest killings and says that he will fight corruption when he takes office in January. But he is a relative unknown, beholden to party factions who have little interest in genuine change. On the streets, young Mozambicans have had enough of empty promises..Read also:.🔒 The Economist: John McDermott – Two murders roil Mozambique's politicsRwanda sends 2,000 extra troops to Mozambique amid surge in Islamist violenceMozambique's Frelimo names Daniel Chapo leader, eyes gas project revival amidst militant threats

The Economist: Mozambique’s ruling party wins a dodgy election

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