By IPS Correspondents
MAPUTO, Nov 30 2004 (IPS)

Mozambicans go to the polls Wednesday and Thursday for general elections that will see President Joaquim Chissano step down after 18 years as head of state.

Joaquim Chissano bids farewell after almost two decades in office. (Photo: Themba Hadebe) Credit: PictureNET Africa

The constitution, drawn up after a 16-year civil war, limits the consecutive presidential terms that can be served to two. As a result, Frelimo has put forward another candidate for this week’s poll: Armando Guebuza.

A former transport and interior minister, Guebuza has marketed himself as a leader who will clamp down on corruption – a major source of concern for many ahead of the elections. However, concerns have been raised about his own integrity.

Voters are also preoccupied with improving living standards in Mozambique, where the war led to widespread poverty. According to the 2004 Human Development Report produced by the United Nations Development Programme, about 38 percent of Mozambicans live on less than a dollar a day.

The 1994 poll took place two years after the signing of a peace accord that brought fighting between Frelimo and the rebel Renamo group to an end. Renamo, which had been financed by South Africa, has since transformed itself into a political party. Leader Afonso Dhlakama will make his third bid for the presidency this week.

Three other candidates are also vying for the post – most notably Raul Domingos, a former secretary-general of Renamo who later formed the Peace, Democracy and Development Party.

Apart from Frelimo and Renamo, 18 other parties are contesting the legislative election. They will need to garner five percent of the vote to gain a place in Mozambique’s 250-seat parliament. However, the election is essentially a struggle between the ruling party and its former rebel adversaries. In the 1999 poll, Frelimo won 133 seats and Renamo 117.

International observers, particularly those from the European Union and the Atlanta-based Carter Centre, have been pushing for full access to all stages of vote counting.

But, the National Elections Commission (CNE) has refused close monitoring of tabulation at provincial and national level – this despite the fact that such scrutiny is not forbidden by Mozambican law, which is silent on the issue. Electoral officials have taken the position that whatever is not explicitly provided for in the law is forbidden.

As a concession, the commission has pledged to set up a window in the national counting centre through which observers can view voting results being entered into computers. The use of a computer system to assist with counting has itself been the subject of controversy, with observers querying the late stage at which it was introduced.

The CNE’s decision has raised concern about possible vote rigging at provincial and national level. Observers are also worried that they will not be able to monitor the commission’s deliberations about ballots where voters have not indicated their preference clearly – and about results sheets from polling stations which contain mistakes.

In 1999, electoral officials excluded votes from about seven percent of polling stations after they presented erroneous results sheets. Half a million ballot papers were also reconsidered, with only a quarter ultimately being accepted. A similar occurrence this year could prove divisive in the event of a close race.

The Election Observatory, a coalition of seven Mozambican civil society organisations led by the CNE’s first chairman, Brazão Mazula, says there is no legal justification for the commission’s stance on election observers. It has added its voice to the chorus of those who want monitors given full access to vote tabulation.

About eight million of Mozambique’s 19-million citizens are registered to vote. Thirteen-thousand polling stations have been set up to accommodate them, while Mozambicans living abroad will for the first time also be allowed to cast ballots.

Incidents of violence have occurred in the run-up to the election, and about ten people are reported to have died as a result. But overall, the level of violence appears lower than during previous polls.

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