Mozambican Liberation Front
Encyclopedia
The Liberation Front of Mozambique, (FRELIMO) (fɾeˈlimu), from the Portuguese
Frente de Libertação de Moçambique, was a liberation movement
which was founded in 1962 to fight for the independence of the Portuguese
Overseas Province of Mozambique. At its 3rd Congress, in February 1977, it became a Marxist-Leninist political party and its official name became the Frelimo Party (Partido Frelimo). Independence was achieved in 1975 after the Carnation Revolution
in Lisbon
and the movement/party has ruled Mozambique
from then until the present, first as a single party, and later as the majority party in a multi-party parliament.
and other Portuguese possessions were overseas territories of the metropole
(mother country), and emigration to the colonies soared. Calls for Mozambican independence developed apace, and in 1962 several anti-colonial political groups formed the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO), which initiated an armed campaign against Portuguese colonial rule in September 1964. However, Portugal had ruled Mozambique for more than four hundred years; not all Mozambicans desired independence, and fewer still sought change through armed revolution.
FRELIMO was founded in Dar es Salaam
, Tanzania
on 25 June 1962, when three regionally based nationalist organizations – the Mozambican African National Union (MANU), National Democratic Union of Mozambique
(UDENAMO), and the National African Union of Independent Mozambique (UNAMI) merged into one broad based guerrilla movement. Under the leadership of Eduardo Mondlane
, elected president of the newly formed Mozambican Liberation Front, FRELIMO settled its headquarters in 1963 in Dar-es-Salaam. The Rev. Uria Simango
was its
first vice-president.
Headquartering the movement in Mozambique would not have been practicable because of the intolerance of the Portuguese for nationalist movements and the strength of the police. (The three founding groups had also operated as exiles.) Tanzania and its president, Julius Nyerere
, were sympathetic to the Mozambican nationalist groups. Convinced by recent events, such as the Mueda massacre, that peaceful agitation would not bring about independence, FRELIMO contemplated the possibility of armed struggle from the outset, although it did not launch its first attack until September 1964.
During the ensuing war of independence, FRELIMO received support from China
, the USSR,
the Scandinavia
n countries, and some non-governmental organisations in the West. Its initial military operations were in the North of the country; by the late 1960s it had established "liberated zones" in Northern Mozambique in which it rather than the Portuguese constituted the civil authority. In administering these zones it was necessary for FRELIMO to tangibly improve the lot of the peasantry in order to receive their support. It freed them from subjegation to landlords and Portuguese-appointed "chiefs", and established cooperative
forms of agriculture. It also greatly increased peasant access to education and health-care—the latter often administered by FRELIMO soldiers assigned to medical assistance projects. Its practical experience in the liberated zones lead FRELIMO increasingly toward a Marxist
policy. FRELIMO came to regard economic exploitation by Western capital
as the principal enemy of the common Mozambican people, not the Portuguese as such, and not Whites. Thus, although an African nationalist party, it adopted a non-racial stance, and in fact included a number of Whites and mulattoes among its members.
The early years of the party, during which its Marxist direction evolved, were the occasion of some internal turmoil. The line described above: that is, to fight not merely for independence but also for a change to a socialist society, was championed by Mondlane, along with dos Santos
, Machel
, Chissano
and a majority of the Party's Central Committee. The socialist position was approved by the Second Party Congress, held in July 1968. Mondlane was reelected party President and Uria Simango
was re-elected vice-president.
After Mondlane's assassination, Uria Simango took over the leadership, but his presidency was disputed.
In April 1969, leadership was assumed by a triumvirate comprising Samora Machel
, Marcelino dos Santos
and Uria Simango
.
Simango was ousted in November 1969 and left FRELIMO to join another small liberation movement COREMO (Revolutionary
Committee of Mozambique).
FRELIMO initially established some "liberated" zones (countryside zones with native rural populations controlled by FRELIMO guerrillas) in Northern Mozambique, and the strength of the movement gradually grew over the ensuing decade. As FRELIMO's political campaign gained coherence, its forces advanced militarily, controlling one-third of the area of Mozambique by 1969, mostly in the northern and central provinces. However, it was not able to take control of any urban centre, including none of those small cities and towns located inside a "liberated" zone. In 1970 the guerrilla suffered heavy damage due to Portugal's Gordian Knot Operation
(Operação Nó Górdio), which was masterminded by Kaúlza de Arriaga
. By the early 1970s, FRELIMO's 7,000-strong guerilla force had wrested control of some parts of central and northern Mozambique from the Portuguese authorities and was engaging a Portuguese force of approximately 60,000 soldiers. In 1975, after the April 1974 Carnation Revolution
, and the overthrow of the Portuguese Estado Novo regime, Portugal and FRELIMO negotiated Mozambique's independence, which came into effect in June of that year. FRELIMO then established a one-party state
based on Marxist principles with Samora Machel
as President. The new government received diplomatic and some military support from Cuba
and the Soviet Union
.
Marcelino dos Santos became his vice-president while Uria Simango
, his wife Celina and other prominent Frelimo
dissidents including Paulo Gumane and Adelino Gwambe (former leaders of UDENAMO), were arrested and extrajudicially executed in Mozambique.
The new government was engaged in a civil war
with an anti-Communist
political faction known as RENAMO
sponsored by the white minority governments of Rhodesia
and South Africa
. The Rome General Peace Accords
that put an end to this civil war were not signed until 1992. In later years, reflecting its move towards social democratic views FRELIMO received active support from Margaret Thatcher
's government in the UK
and Mozambique became a member of the Commonwealth of Nations
.
After Machel's death in 1986, in a suspicious airplane crash, Joaquim Chissano
began to lead both the party and the state.
Mozambique's national anthem from 1975 to 1992 was Viva, Viva a FRELIMO
("Long Live FRELIMO").
. After the Rome General Peace Accords
that put an end to the Mozambican Civil War
(1977–1992), the Mozambican ruling regime called for democratic, multi-party elections in 1994 that put an end to single-party rule. FRELIMO won the first elections with a large majority of the votes. In addition, the imperative of expunging all trace of socialist influence has compelled FRELIMO to rework official memories of the Mozambican War of Independence
, a revision that has accelerated the slide of an already heavily mythologized official history.
The party thus selected Armando Guebuza
as its candidate in the presidential election
on December 1–2, 2004 where he won expectedly with about 60% of the vote. At the last legislative elections
of the same date the party won 62.0 % of the popular vote and 160 out of 250 seats. RENAMO and some other opposition parties made claims of election fraud and denounced the result. These claims were supported by international observers (among others by the European Union Election Observation Mission to Mozambique and the Carter Center) to the elections who criticized the fact that the National Electoral Commission (CNE) did not conduct fair and transparent elections. They listed a whole range of shortcomings by the electoral authorities that benefited the ruling party FRELIMO. However, the elections shortcomings have probably not (also according to EU observers) affected the final result in the presidential election. The distribution of parliamentary seats among the parties will have been somewhat altered though, RENAMO probably losing some seats to FRELIMO. The Shangaan
ethnic group is noted for its support for FRELIMO.
, Algeria
, Ghana
, Zambia
, Libya
, Sweden
, Norway
, Denmark
, the Netherlands
, Brazil
, Bulgaria
, Czechoslovakia
, China
, the Soviet Union
, and Yugoslavia
.
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
Frente de Libertação de Moçambique, was a liberation movement
Liberation movement
A liberation movement is an organization leading a rebellion against a colonial power or national government, often seeking independence based on a nationalist identity and an anti-imperialist outlook.-See also:*Anti-imperialism...
which was founded in 1962 to fight for the independence of the Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
Overseas Province of Mozambique. At its 3rd Congress, in February 1977, it became a Marxist-Leninist political party and its official name became the Frelimo Party (Partido Frelimo). Independence was achieved in 1975 after the Carnation Revolution
Carnation Revolution
The Carnation Revolution , also referred to as the 25 de Abril , was a military coup started on 25 April 1974, in Lisbon, Portugal, coupled with an unanticipated and extensive campaign of civil resistance...
in Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
and the movement/party has ruled Mozambique
Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...
from then until the present, first as a single party, and later as the majority party in a multi-party parliament.
Independence war (1962-1975)
After World War II, while many European nations were granting independence to their colonies, Portugal, under the Estado Novo regime, maintained that MozambiquePortuguese East Africa
Mozambique or Portuguese East Africa was the common name by which the Portuguese Empire's territorial expansion in East Africa was known across different periods of time...
and other Portuguese possessions were overseas territories of the metropole
Metropole
The metropole, from the Greek Metropolis 'mother city' was the name given to the British metropolitan centre of the British Empire, i.e. the United Kingdom itself...
(mother country), and emigration to the colonies soared. Calls for Mozambican independence developed apace, and in 1962 several anti-colonial political groups formed the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO), which initiated an armed campaign against Portuguese colonial rule in September 1964. However, Portugal had ruled Mozambique for more than four hundred years; not all Mozambicans desired independence, and fewer still sought change through armed revolution.
FRELIMO was founded in Dar es Salaam
Dar es Salaam
Dar es Salaam , formerly Mzizima, is the largest city in Tanzania. It is also the country's richest city and a regionally important economic centre. Dar es Salaam is actually an administrative province within Tanzania, and consists of three local government areas or administrative districts: ...
, Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
on 25 June 1962, when three regionally based nationalist organizations – the Mozambican African National Union (MANU), National Democratic Union of Mozambique
National Democratic Union of Mozambique
The National Democratic Union of Mozambique was a nationalist organization founded in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia in 1960. It was led by Adelino Gwambe and consisted mostly of migrant workers and disgruntled students who had fled central and southern regions of Mozambique. It was formed to...
(UDENAMO), and the National African Union of Independent Mozambique (UNAMI) merged into one broad based guerrilla movement. Under the leadership of Eduardo Mondlane
Eduardo Mondlane
Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane served as President of the Mozambican Liberation Front from 1962, the year that FRELIMO was founded in Tanzania, until his assassination in 1969.-Early life:...
, elected president of the newly formed Mozambican Liberation Front, FRELIMO settled its headquarters in 1963 in Dar-es-Salaam. The Rev. Uria Simango
Uria Simango
The reverend Uria Timoteo Simango The reverend Uria Timoteo Simango The reverend Uria Timoteo Simango (born March 15, 1926 was a Mozambican Presbyterian minister and prominent leader of the Mozambique Liberation Front FRELIMO during the liberation struggle against Portuguese colonial rule...
was its
first vice-president.
Headquartering the movement in Mozambique would not have been practicable because of the intolerance of the Portuguese for nationalist movements and the strength of the police. (The three founding groups had also operated as exiles.) Tanzania and its president, Julius Nyerere
Julius Nyerere
Julius Kambarage Nyerere was a Tanzanian politician who served as the first President of Tanzania and previously Tanganyika, from the country's founding in 1961 until his retirement in 1985....
, were sympathetic to the Mozambican nationalist groups. Convinced by recent events, such as the Mueda massacre, that peaceful agitation would not bring about independence, FRELIMO contemplated the possibility of armed struggle from the outset, although it did not launch its first attack until September 1964.
During the ensuing war of independence, FRELIMO received support from China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, the USSR,
the Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
n countries, and some non-governmental organisations in the West. Its initial military operations were in the North of the country; by the late 1960s it had established "liberated zones" in Northern Mozambique in which it rather than the Portuguese constituted the civil authority. In administering these zones it was necessary for FRELIMO to tangibly improve the lot of the peasantry in order to receive their support. It freed them from subjegation to landlords and Portuguese-appointed "chiefs", and established cooperative
Collective
A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest, or work together on a specific project to achieve a common objective...
forms of agriculture. It also greatly increased peasant access to education and health-care—the latter often administered by FRELIMO soldiers assigned to medical assistance projects. Its practical experience in the liberated zones lead FRELIMO increasingly toward a Marxist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
policy. FRELIMO came to regard economic exploitation by Western capital
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
as the principal enemy of the common Mozambican people, not the Portuguese as such, and not Whites. Thus, although an African nationalist party, it adopted a non-racial stance, and in fact included a number of Whites and mulattoes among its members.
The early years of the party, during which its Marxist direction evolved, were the occasion of some internal turmoil. The line described above: that is, to fight not merely for independence but also for a change to a socialist society, was championed by Mondlane, along with dos Santos
Marcelino dos Santos
Marcelino dos Santos is a Mozambican poet, revolutionary, and statesman. As a young man he travelled to Portugal, and Paris, France for an education. He was a founding member of the Frente de Libertacao de Mocambique , in 1962; and served as the party's deputy president from 1969 to 1977...
, Machel
Samora Machel
Samora Moisés Machel was a Mozambican military commander, revolutionary socialist leader and eventual President of Mozambique...
, Chissano
Joaquim Chissano
Joaquim Alberto Chissano served as the second President of Mozambique for nineteen years from 6 November 1986 until 2 February 2005. Since stepping down as president, Chissano has become an elder statesman and is called upon by international bodies, such as the United Nations, to be an envoy or...
and a majority of the Party's Central Committee. The socialist position was approved by the Second Party Congress, held in July 1968. Mondlane was reelected party President and Uria Simango
Uria Simango
The reverend Uria Timoteo Simango The reverend Uria Timoteo Simango The reverend Uria Timoteo Simango (born March 15, 1926 was a Mozambican Presbyterian minister and prominent leader of the Mozambique Liberation Front FRELIMO during the liberation struggle against Portuguese colonial rule...
was re-elected vice-president.
After Mondlane's assassination, Uria Simango took over the leadership, but his presidency was disputed.
In April 1969, leadership was assumed by a triumvirate comprising Samora Machel
Samora Machel
Samora Moisés Machel was a Mozambican military commander, revolutionary socialist leader and eventual President of Mozambique...
, Marcelino dos Santos
Marcelino dos Santos
Marcelino dos Santos is a Mozambican poet, revolutionary, and statesman. As a young man he travelled to Portugal, and Paris, France for an education. He was a founding member of the Frente de Libertacao de Mocambique , in 1962; and served as the party's deputy president from 1969 to 1977...
and Uria Simango
Uria Simango
The reverend Uria Timoteo Simango The reverend Uria Timoteo Simango The reverend Uria Timoteo Simango (born March 15, 1926 was a Mozambican Presbyterian minister and prominent leader of the Mozambique Liberation Front FRELIMO during the liberation struggle against Portuguese colonial rule...
.
Simango was ousted in November 1969 and left FRELIMO to join another small liberation movement COREMO (Revolutionary
Committee of Mozambique).
FRELIMO initially established some "liberated" zones (countryside zones with native rural populations controlled by FRELIMO guerrillas) in Northern Mozambique, and the strength of the movement gradually grew over the ensuing decade. As FRELIMO's political campaign gained coherence, its forces advanced militarily, controlling one-third of the area of Mozambique by 1969, mostly in the northern and central provinces. However, it was not able to take control of any urban centre, including none of those small cities and towns located inside a "liberated" zone. In 1970 the guerrilla suffered heavy damage due to Portugal's Gordian Knot Operation
Gordian Knot Operation
The Operation Gordian Knot was the largest and most expensive Portuguese military campaign in the Portuguese overseas province of Mozambique, East Africa. It was performed in 1970, during the Portuguese Colonial War...
(Operação Nó Górdio), which was masterminded by Kaúlza de Arriaga
Kaúlza de Arriaga
Kaúlza de Oliveira de Arriaga, OA, GCC, OC, OIH was a Portuguese General, writer, professor and politician...
. By the early 1970s, FRELIMO's 7,000-strong guerilla force had wrested control of some parts of central and northern Mozambique from the Portuguese authorities and was engaging a Portuguese force of approximately 60,000 soldiers. In 1975, after the April 1974 Carnation Revolution
Carnation Revolution
The Carnation Revolution , also referred to as the 25 de Abril , was a military coup started on 25 April 1974, in Lisbon, Portugal, coupled with an unanticipated and extensive campaign of civil resistance...
, and the overthrow of the Portuguese Estado Novo regime, Portugal and FRELIMO negotiated Mozambique's independence, which came into effect in June of that year. FRELIMO then established a one-party state
Single-party state
A single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a type of party system government in which a single political party forms the government and no other parties are permitted to run candidates for election...
based on Marxist principles with Samora Machel
Samora Machel
Samora Moisés Machel was a Mozambican military commander, revolutionary socialist leader and eventual President of Mozambique...
as President. The new government received diplomatic and some military support from Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
and the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
.
Marcelino dos Santos became his vice-president while Uria Simango
Uria Simango
The reverend Uria Timoteo Simango The reverend Uria Timoteo Simango The reverend Uria Timoteo Simango (born March 15, 1926 was a Mozambican Presbyterian minister and prominent leader of the Mozambique Liberation Front FRELIMO during the liberation struggle against Portuguese colonial rule...
, his wife Celina and other prominent Frelimo
dissidents including Paulo Gumane and Adelino Gwambe (former leaders of UDENAMO), were arrested and extrajudicially executed in Mozambique.
Civil War (1975-1992)
Mozambican Civil War
The Mozambican Civil War began in 1977, two years after the end of the war of independence. The ruling party, Front for Liberation of Mozambique , was violently opposed from 1977 by the Rhodesian- and South African-funded Mozambique Resistance Movement...
with an anti-Communist
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
political faction known as RENAMO
Mozambican National Resistance
The Mozambican National Resistance is a conservative political party in Mozambique led by Afonso Dhlakama. It fought against the FRELIMO in the Mozambican Civil War and against the ZANU movement led by Robert Mugabe from 1975 to 1992....
sponsored by the white minority governments of Rhodesia
Rhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
and South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. The Rome General Peace Accords
Rome General Peace Accords
The Rome General Peace Accords between the Mozambican Civil War parties, the Frelimo and the Renamo , put an end to the Mozambique Civil War. It was signed on October 4, 1992. Negotiations preceding in began in July 1990...
that put an end to this civil war were not signed until 1992. In later years, reflecting its move towards social democratic views FRELIMO received active support from Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
's government in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Mozambique became a member of the Commonwealth of Nations
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
.
After Machel's death in 1986, in a suspicious airplane crash, Joaquim Chissano
Joaquim Chissano
Joaquim Alberto Chissano served as the second President of Mozambique for nineteen years from 6 November 1986 until 2 February 2005. Since stepping down as president, Chissano has become an elder statesman and is called upon by international bodies, such as the United Nations, to be an envoy or...
began to lead both the party and the state.
Mozambique's national anthem from 1975 to 1992 was Viva, Viva a FRELIMO
Viva, Viva a FRELIMO
"Viva, Viva a FRELIMO" was the national anthem of Mozambique from 25 June 1975 to 30 April 2002.It was written by Justino Sigaulane Chemane in the 1970s, in celebration of Mozambique's main political party from independence in 1975 to 1992...
("Long Live FRELIMO").
The end of Marxist ideology
Despite his inspiration in the Communist bloc countries, Chissano was not a hard-line Marxist and retreated from the traditional ideology with the collapse of the Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. After the Rome General Peace Accords
Rome General Peace Accords
The Rome General Peace Accords between the Mozambican Civil War parties, the Frelimo and the Renamo , put an end to the Mozambique Civil War. It was signed on October 4, 1992. Negotiations preceding in began in July 1990...
that put an end to the Mozambican Civil War
Mozambican Civil War
The Mozambican Civil War began in 1977, two years after the end of the war of independence. The ruling party, Front for Liberation of Mozambique , was violently opposed from 1977 by the Rhodesian- and South African-funded Mozambique Resistance Movement...
(1977–1992), the Mozambican ruling regime called for democratic, multi-party elections in 1994 that put an end to single-party rule. FRELIMO won the first elections with a large majority of the votes. In addition, the imperative of expunging all trace of socialist influence has compelled FRELIMO to rework official memories of the Mozambican War of Independence
Mozambican War of Independence
The Mozambican War of Independence was an armed conflict between the guerrilla forces of the Mozambique Liberation Front or FRELIMO , and Portugal...
, a revision that has accelerated the slide of an already heavily mythologized official history.
1999 and 2000s
At the elections in late 1999, President Chissano was re-elected with 52.3% of the vote, and FRELIMO secured 133 of 250 parliamentary seats. Due to a mass of scams and several cases of corruption, Chissano's government has become the target of wide criticism.The party thus selected Armando Guebuza
Armando Guebuza
Armando Emílio Guebuza is a Mozambican politician and the President of Mozambique since 2005.- Career :Armando Emílio Guebuza was born in 20 January 1943 in Portuguese East Africa...
as its candidate in the presidential election
Elections in Mozambique
Elections in Mozambique gives information on election and election results in Mozambique.Mozambique elects on national level a head of state - the president - and a legislature. The president is elected for a five year term by the people...
on December 1–2, 2004 where he won expectedly with about 60% of the vote. At the last legislative elections
Elections in Mozambique
Elections in Mozambique gives information on election and election results in Mozambique.Mozambique elects on national level a head of state - the president - and a legislature. The president is elected for a five year term by the people...
of the same date the party won 62.0 % of the popular vote and 160 out of 250 seats. RENAMO and some other opposition parties made claims of election fraud and denounced the result. These claims were supported by international observers (among others by the European Union Election Observation Mission to Mozambique and the Carter Center) to the elections who criticized the fact that the National Electoral Commission (CNE) did not conduct fair and transparent elections. They listed a whole range of shortcomings by the electoral authorities that benefited the ruling party FRELIMO. However, the elections shortcomings have probably not (also according to EU observers) affected the final result in the presidential election. The distribution of parliamentary seats among the parties will have been somewhat altered though, RENAMO probably losing some seats to FRELIMO. The Shangaan
Shangaan
The Tsonga people inhabit the southern coastal plain of Mozambique, parts of Zimbabwe and Swaziland, and the Limpopo Province of South Africa...
ethnic group is noted for its support for FRELIMO.
Foreign support
FRELIMO received support from the governments of TanzaniaTanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
, Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
, Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
, Zambia
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
, Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
, the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, and Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
.
Mozambican presidents representing FRELIMO
- Samora MachelSamora MachelSamora Moisés Machel was a Mozambican military commander, revolutionary socialist leader and eventual President of Mozambique...
: 25 June 1975 - 19 October 1986 - Joaquim ChissanoJoaquim ChissanoJoaquim Alberto Chissano served as the second President of Mozambique for nineteen years from 6 November 1986 until 2 February 2005. Since stepping down as president, Chissano has become an elder statesman and is called upon by international bodies, such as the United Nations, to be an envoy or...
: 6 November 1986 - 2 February 2005 - Armando GuebuzaArmando GuebuzaArmando Emílio Guebuza is a Mozambican politician and the President of Mozambique since 2005.- Career :Armando Emílio Guebuza was born in 20 January 1943 in Portuguese East Africa...
: 2 February 2005 -
External links
- FRELIMO official site
- Special Report on Mozambique 2004 Elections by the Carter Center
- Final Report of the European Union Election Observation Mission