Decades ago, Mozambique’s liberation party, Frelimo, easily drew adoring crowds. The promise of salvation from Portuguese colonizers and a life with jobs and housing for all was an easy sell in a South African nation suffering under racist rule.
But when Daniel Chapo of Freli becomes president on Wednesday, he will face a country more disaffected with his party than at any time in the country’s 50 years of independence. Millions of people went out into the street after October’s elections, which were roundly criticized as fraudulent by voters, international observers, opposition leaders and human rights groups.
The country of 33 million inhabitants was engulfed in political chaos from voting. And now Frelimo’s grip on power is being tested like never before at a time when Mozambique faces an urgent economic and social crisis, analysts say. Two of the three opposition parties boycotted the opening of Parliament on Monday.
Anger among voters has exploded in mass street protests in recent months that have led to clashes with police. At least 300 people were killed.
Mr. Chapo and his party likely hoped Wednesday’s inauguration would help move the country toward reconciliation and stability. Instead, the challenges facing Frelimo’s leadership may be just beginning, political insiders say.
“Frelimo has become accustomed to seeing itself as a chosen party,” said Gabriel Muthisse, a former top party official who remains an active member. “They believed that the elections were just a formality for the people to confirm their leadership. In the past five, 10 years, things have shown that this is a lie.”
Last week in the capital, Maputo, police responded with deadly force when supporters took to the streets to greet main opposition leader Venância Mondlane, who returned to Mozambique after self-imposed exile. The ardent populist received support dissatisfied young voters who see him as an ally in their fight against the corrupt political elite.
Mr Mondlane, who claims to have won the election, has called for continued protests, although this week has not attracted the mass protests that have shut down the capital and other cities in previous months.
In an interview in Maputo, Mr. Mondlane said that with Mr. Chapom communicated through a mutual friend. He expressed hope that the newly elected president would negotiate a resolution to end the political crisis and accept the reforms he had outlined in a recent proposal. These reforms include the construction of three million houses for poor Mozambicans and the creation of a fund of half a billion dollars for startups led by women and young people.
“You have to give people something very crucial and something tangible,” said Mr. Mondlan. “I don’t know if all the items in my proposal will be satisfied or not. But I think we will start a platform of dialogue.”
Protests are still necessary, he added, because to ensure reforms happen, “you have to put the government under pressure.”
Mr. Chapo, 48, emerged last year as Frelimo’s surprise presidential candidate. Unlike others in the party, he did not lobby for the appointment. He entered public office only 10 years ago, but long ago faced the country’s troubled political history.
When he was 5, he said, his family was abducted by guerrilla forces fighting Freli during Mozambique’s 16-year civil war. A lawyer by training, he served as a provincial governor before running for president for the first time last year as a member of Frelim.
Branquinho João da Costa, a 43-year-old doctor who lives part-time in Maputo, recalled his days in primary school when the fame of Freli was etched into him and his colleagues through songs about freedom. “It is very difficult to completely separate from Frelim,” he said.
Many Mozambicans were now unhappy with the party over allegations of corruption and its failure to tackle rising prices, which he called “a new kind of slavery for the people”. Mr. da Costa said that his childhood Frelimo was more in touch with the party’s socialist roots, and that it was then led by officials who cared less about wealth and power.
“The true goal of Frelim was to serve the people,” he said. “Now many of them are fighting for political positions just to steal from us.”
Frelimo no longer has the luxury of ignoring such criticism, some party members say. The past few months have been a warning, said Alsácia Sardinha, who was sworn in this week for her third term as a member of parliament for Frelimo.
“We have to reinvent ourselves to meet people’s demands,” she said. That reinvention includes checking one’s own government against wrongdoing, she added.
Mr Muthisse, a former Frelimo official, said parliament could no longer approve laws proposed by the president. The party needs to focus on reforming institutions, such as the electoral commission and the courts, to regain public trust, he said.
This reform should be at the center of the negotiations with the opposition, Mr. Muthisse said.
“Everyone has to bring ideas,” he said, “so that in the next election we all believe.”
