In addition to marches, parades, shows, and door-to-door canvassing, parties have invested time and resources in social networks in the hunt for the vote.
Facebook is the favourite platform; only one party (Frelimo) is in Twitter with just 191 followers. Our survey showed that half of the contending election parties are permanently present on Facebook. Frelimo is the most accepted party on Facebook, with over 77,000 followers on its page. In the next position is Renamo with about 16,000 followers. Nova Democracia (ND) and MDM follow with more than 11,000 followers.
However, just having followers is not enough. Parties like PODEMOS have over 3,000 followers, but with a level of interaction among followers on their page that surpasses Renamo. See the table.
The remaining 6 parties, mostly extraparliamentary, have few followers and also low interaction, that is, rarely their contents get reactions from netizens.
Of the 13 parties campaigning on Facebook, only ND and PODEMOS have their manifestos published on their page. These two parties are aimed at young people, and there is a lot of interaction on Facebook since young people are the main users of this social network.
| parties on facebook | ||
| Parties | Followers | Interaction |
| Frelimo | 77,759 | High |
| ND | 11,522 | High |
| MDM | 11, 483 | High |
| PODEMOS | 3,914 | High |
| RENAMO | 16,216 | Low |
| PEC-MT | 851 | Low |
| AMUSI | 759 | Low |
| PASOMO | 626 | Low |
| PJDM | 395 | Low |
| MONARUMO | 106 | Low |
| PVM | 102 | Low |
| PAHUMO | 67 | Low |
| UDM | 21 | Low |
Source: Mozambique Political Process Bulletin, General
Elections 2019 – September 2019 data
