Violence Threatens to Undercut Peaceful Elections in Mozambique
Incumbent President Filipe Nyusi is competing for a second term in Mozambique’s election. (Wikimedia Commons)
Anger erupted into violence in the Mozambican province of Gaza after the assassination of Anastácio Matavel on October 7. Matavel was the executive director of the Forum of Gaza Non-Governmental Organizations (FONGA). He was gunned down by five men after leaving an election observation training in the provincial capital of Xai-Xai. This incident adds to a pattern of increasing violence before the general election on October 15 in which incumbent President Filipe Nyusi of the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) seeks a second term.
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Mozambique’s modern political system began in 1994 with the first multi-party election that the country had ever held. The two major parties of this first election, Renamo and Frelimo, continue to be the most relevant parties to this day. Renamo was founded as an anti-government rebel group but has since become a prominent political party that supports modernizing infrastructure, increasing foreign investment, and returning to traditional authorities. Frelimo is rooted in the fight for Mozambican independence and has remained in power since. Although the party has a complex history, Frelimo’s manifesto describes a focus on decentralization, economic development, and social justice.
Recent instability ahead of October 15 elections has been exacerbated by concerns over election integrity. Critics of the election’s integrity include Human Rights Watch, which notes that it has “documented serious abuses and acts of violence in Gaza province since the start of the election campaign on August 31,” including “violations of the right to peaceful assembly and arbitrary arrests of opposition candidates.”
The suspicions surrounding election integrity are substantiated by reports of further election irregularities. For example, reports state that in the Gaza province, “300,000 more people registered to vote than were estimated by the 2017 census.” When this discrepancy was brought to public attention, the chairperson of Mozambique’s National Statistics Institute resigned rather than agreeing with the president’s claim that the census was mistaken.
On October 8, the day after Matavel’s shooting, Portuguese news agency Lusa reported that a spokesperson for the Mozambican Police Command announced that of the five shooters who killed Matavel, four were police officers. These officers were assigned to a local special operations group, called the Gaza Rapid Intervention Subunit.
Additional concern over this event is rooted in the fact that the assassination took place in the Gaza province, which is already the target of suspicion due to seemingly erroneous voter registration numbers.
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Local and international condemnation has followed swiftly as a result of the assassination. The EU Election Observation Mission has denounced the lack of sufficient government response and called for measures to ensure the integrity of the upcoming elections. Similarly, the mayor of Xai-Xai said he felt “profound revulsion at the macabre act” and demanded an immediate investigation.