A sweeping victory for Frelimo and President Filipe Nyusi, which matches the victory of Armando Guebuza for his second term, was declared this afternoon by the National Elections Commission (CNE). Nyusi won the presidency with 73% of the vote and Frelimo will have 184 seats in the 250 seat parliament. By contrast in 2004, Guebuza won with 75% and Frelimo gained 191 parliament seats.
Nyusi gained 1.8 million votes since his first election in 2014, jumping from 2.8 mn to 4.6 mn. After this elections, Frelimo increases from 144 to 184 seats, while Renamo drops from 89 to 60 seats and MDM from 17 to only 6. No other parties gained seats in parliament or provincial assemblies. Turnout was 51.8%, the highest since 1999, but lower that the 60% turnout in municipal elections last year.
The wipe out continued in the provinces, where Frelimo won all 10 governorship and 628 seats in provincial assemblies, compared to 156 for Renamo and 10 for MDM.
Frelimo’s victory was even bigger than predicted by the parallel vote count. Frelimo gained 9 more parliament seats than was predicted based on the parallel count.
But observers and our correspondents have pointed to widespread misconduct. Registration totals were inflated in Gaza and supressed in Zambézia. During the voting there was more overt ballot box stuffing than in the past, and election commissions illegally refused to accredit more than 3000 independent domestic observer as well as many party delegates (poll watchers). All parts of the electoral process are politicised and the CNE split on party lines, only approving the election on Friday on a 9-8 vote. The report of the presented to the public today was signed by the 9 Frelimo members but not the 8 opposition members. Please click here to see the tables
