The future starts now: 26 new voices in Mozambique's local elections

In Mozambique, preparations are under way for the upcoming local elections, scheduled for 11 October 2023. To date, 26 parties, coalitions and citizens' groups have formalised their registration for the poll.

The chairman of the National Elections Commission (CNE), Anglican bishop Carlos Matsinhe, was encouraged by the progress and optimistic about the future of the process, at a recent meeting with the President of the Republic, Filipe Nyusi, in Maputo.

The period for submitting candidacies for the October elections began on 20 July and runs until 11 August. The CNE has shown confidence that the process will continue without setbacks and will reach a satisfactory conclusion.

According to CNE information, more than 8.7 million Mozambican voters are registered to vote, a number below the initial projection of 9.8 million. In the upcoming local elections, voters will choose 65 new mayors, including in 12 new municipalities that will join the 53 already in existence.

By comparison, in the 2018 local elections, the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) won in 44 of the 53 municipalities, while the opposition won in only nine.

The CNE also announced that the Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE) carried out the 2023 Voter Registration from Scratch in all districts with local authorities between 20 April and 3 June. It was reported that the total number of voters registered in the local authorities is 8,723,805, which corresponds to 88.32% of the projected 9,877,929 voters.

For the October elections, the total number of members to be elected, including for the municipal assemblies and varying according to the number of voters registered in each municipality, will be 1,747.

The registration process took place in all districts with local authorities, involving the setting up of 4,292 voter registration posts, served by 3,192 brigades, 2,165 of which were fixed and 1,019 mobile.

Information on the total of 12.9 million voters registered in 2019, which corresponded to just over 91% of the initial target, was also mentioned, as was the target of 14 million voters for the 2018 local and 2019 presidential elections.