Mocambique: Ruling Over Nothing

MOZAMBIQUE

Ruling Over Nothing

Police officers allegedly killed an election observer in Mozambique a week before the presidential vote on Oct. 15. Reported by Human Rights Watch, the incident was just one flare-up of recent violence in the southeastern African country.

The elections were supposed to be a celebration of democracy. President Filipe Nyusi, who is now running for re-election, negotiated a peace deal with the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), a militant opposition group, earlier this year. Nyusi also recently inked a $33 billion deal with ExxonMobil for a mammoth liquefied natural gas project that Bloomberg said could transform the former Portuguese colony’s $15 billion economy.

But, as African Arguments explained, corruption allegations against officials in Nyusi’s ruling party, the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), soured many voters’ perceptions of their head of state. The allegations centered on $2 billion of debt that public authorities had secretly amassed, leading the International Monetary Fund in 2016 to cut off aid that was crucial to the well-being of ordinary Mozambicans.

Nyusi is also battling an insurgency in the country’s north where terrorists affiliated with the Islamic State have staged attacks. Russian soldiers have reportedly been seen in the area, suggesting the president feels that he can’t squelch the violence. Russia denies its involvement, however.

Yet Nyusi might win re-election anyway. Renamo’s longtime charismatic leader, Afonso Dhlakama, died suddenly last year, leaving the main opposition group weakened. After a new resistance leader, Ossufo Momade, rose to power, a splinter group led by Mariano Nhongo emerged. Nhongo’s fighters have launched attacks that have crippled transportation networks in the center of the country.

With armed uprisings in multiple regions, the opposition in tatters and promises of prosperity yet to materialize, many voters have lost faith in their government, especially the young.

“The youth are not interested in the vote because they are tired,” Andre Cardoso, a 24-year old rapper from Maputo who goes by the name MC Chamboco, told Chinese news site, CGTN Africa, which covers the continent. “There are many problems that they are facing but they don’t see change. They are disillusioned. Even those voting for the first time don’t believe there will be change.”

Free and fair elections are impossible, warned Jasmine Opperman, an Africa specialist with TRAC, the Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium, in a Voice of America video. In the north, people are too afraid to go to the polls, she said. Reuters also noted that in regions where cyclones struck earlier this year the government still has not given out identity documents necessary for voters to cast ballots. And some urged voters to stay at the polling stations after voting to make sure their ballots weren’t stolen, Al Jazeera reported.

Nyusi’s Frelimo party, which has held onto power since independence nearly 45 years ago, won recent municipal elections with only a slim margin of victory. Opperman felt as if Nyusi and his allies were unlikely to cede power if they lose this time around.

If developments continue in their current vein, Nyusi might cling to power but he might not have a country to run.