Press Review CW 43/2024: Continuity and change
Press Review 17 October 2024 to 25 October 2024

FRELIMO candidate Daniel Chapo wins presidential elections in Mozambique

 

Daniel Chapo, candidate of the ruling party Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (FRELIMO), has won the presidential elections in Mozambique on 9 October, the National Electoral Commission announced on Thursday. According to official results, the 47-year-old was able to beat his challengers with 70.67%. Venâncio Mondlane, who had entered the race as an independent candidate and was supported by the Partido Optimista pelo Desenvolvimento de Moçambique (PODEMOS), came second with 20.32% of the vote. Ossufo Momade, chairman of the former rebel group Resistência Nacional Moçambicana (RENAMO) and the largest opposition party to date, was only able to secure 5.81% of the vote and therefore came third, followed by Lutero Simango, candidate of the Movimento Democrático de Moçambique (MDM), with 3.21%. According to the electoral commission, 43% of the approximately 17 million registered voters turned out to vote.

Parliamentary and provincial elections were held at the same time as the presidential elections. Here, the ruling party FRELIMO was also successful. The party, which has governed the country since independence from Portugal in 1975, secured an absolute majority in the national parliament with 195 out of 250 seats and won all eleven provinces at provincial level. PODEMOS secured 31 parliamentary seats, replacing RENAMO (two seats) as the second strongest force in parliament. The election results must now be confirmed by the Constitutional Court – the candidates have until December to file an official complaint.

The situation in the country has been tense since the elections on 9 October. Even before the final results were published, Mondlane had accused the ruling party of rigging the elections and declared himself the winner, for which he was summoned by the Attorney General for violating the Mozambican constitution. Simango (MDM) also accused the ruling party had engaged in electoral fraud and announced that his party would reject the results and challenge them in court. In a statement published on Tuesday, the European Union (EU) Election Observation Mission (EOM) criticised irregularities during counting and unjustified alteration of election results at polling station and district level and called on the electoral authorities to count the votes in a transparent and credible manner.

Protests took place in numerous cities, including the capital Maputo and the Northern city of Nampula, during and after the publication of the official results, with tyres reportedly being set on fire and election posters torn up. The police used tear gas against some of the protesters. There had already been violent clashes on Monday between demonstrators and the police, who, according to eyewitnesses, used tear gas and live ammunition. This was preceded by Mondlane’s call for a general strike on Monday after two opposition officials were shot dead in their car in the capital Maputo at the weekend. Those killed were Mondlane’s lawyer, Elvino Dias, and Paulo Guambe, spokesperson for the PODEMOS party. The 50-year-old Mondlane blamed the security forces for the murders and accused them of politically motivated violence, while outgoing President Filipe Nyusi condemned the offence and promised a full investigation.

Daniel Chapo will take over the presidency from his party colleague Nyusi in January, making him the first president of Mozambique to be born after independence. The 47-year-old faces major challenges. Among other things, the South-East African country is struggling with a high debt burden and increasing climate shocks as well as Islamist uprisings in the north of the country.

 

 

16th BRICS Summit in Kazan

 

From Tuesday to Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted the 16th BRICS summit in Kazan, a city in the Russian republic of Tatarstan. In addition to the Heads of State and Government of the ten member states, including for the first time Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who joined the BRICS Plus group this year, government representatives from a further 26 countries and UN Secretary-General António Guterres took part. Only Brazil’s Head of State Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was unable to attend for health reasons and joined the event digitally.

Numerous bilateral talks and plenary debates took place under the motto ‘Strengthening Multilateralism for Just Global Development and Security’. The Heads of Government of the African BRICS member states addressed the growing importance of their presence in international politics and the lack of support for the economic development of their countries – points that also made it into the joint final declaration, the so-called Kazan Declaration.

South African President Ramaphosa, for example, called for a reform of the World Trade Organisation that would strengthen the development components of its work in order to facilitate progress in industrialisation. Egypt’s President Al-Sisi called for an urgent solution to the debt problem. In the Kazan Declaration, the BRICS countries therefore call for the predictable, orderly, timely and coordinated implementation of the G20 Joint Framework for Effective and Sustainable Debt Management with the participation of official bilateral creditors, private creditors and multilateral development banks. In his speech, Abiy Ahmed, the Ethiopian Prime Minister, picked up on the discussion about the appropriate representation of Africa in the United Nations (UN) Security Council, which had already taken place at the UN General Assembly in September (Press Review CW 39/2024). The final declaration supports the Sirte Declaration and the Ezulwini Consensus of the African Union from 2005, which contain the demands for two permanent seats, including the right of veto, as well as five non-permanent seats for the African continent. Other demands of the Kazan Declaration include the reform of the Bretton Woods financial institutions, which provides for an inclusive and fairer regional distribution as well as an increase in the proportion of women in management positions. In addition, 13 partner states were identified with which the BRICS Plus group would like to cooperate more closely in future, including two African states, Nigeria and Uganda.

The European Union (EU) was critical of the meeting and accused President Putin of instrumentalising the summit for his own political goals. Peter Stano, spokesman for EU foreign affairs representative Josep Borrell, accused Putin of using the summit to show that Russia is not isolated internationally and called on all participating states to end the war against Ukraine immediately. Against this backdrop, Guterres’ participation also caused annoyance in the EU. The BRICS Plus countries account for 45% of the world’s population and generate around 35% of global economic output, putting them ahead of the G7 countries, which generate around 30% of global economic output but only represent 10% of the world’s population.

 

In other news

 

The Africa Hall in Addis Ababa was officially reopened on Monday by UN Secretary-General António Guterres following extensive renovations. In 1963, the heads of state and government of 32 African countries convened in this location to establish the Organisation for African Unity (OAU), the forerunner of the African Union (AU). The Africa Hall, which was built in 1961 on behalf of the then reigning Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie I, is therefore regarded as an important symbol of cooperation between African states. The building is also known for its 150m² stained glass mural ‘The Total Liberation of Africa’ by the renowned Ethiopian artist Afework Tekle, which adorns the foyer of Africa Hall. This work of art impressively illustrates Africa’s path from colonial oppression to independence. The renovation, which cost 57 million euros, was financed by the United Nations General Assembly. According to the African Economic Commission, the Africa Hall will be used as a venue for permanent exhibitions and special events in future.

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