Decades ago, Mozambique’s independence party, Frelimo, easily attracted large numbers of people. The promise of salvation from the Portuguese colonies, and a life with jobs and housing for all, was an easy sell in the southern African nation that was suffering under the apartheid regime.
But if Daniel Chapo of Frelimo becomes president on Wednesday, he will face a country that is more dissatisfied with his party than at any time in the 50 years since the country gained independence. Millions of people took to the streets after the October elections, which voters, international observers, opposition leaders and rights groups have repeatedly criticized as corrupt.
The country of 33 million people has been plagued by political turmoil since the vote. And now, Frelimo’s power is being tested in an unprecedented way at a time when Mozambique is facing urgent economic and social problems, analysts say. Two of the three opposition parties boycotted the opening of Parliament on Monday.
Voters’ anger erupted into massive street protests a few months ago, which led to clashes with the police. About 300 people have been killed.
Mr. Chapo and his party may have hoped that Wednesday’s coronation would help the country reach reconciliation and stability. Instead, the challenges facing Frelimo’s leadership may be just beginning, say political insiders.
“Frelimo started to get used to seeing itself as an elected party,” said Gabriel Muthisse, the party’s former chief executive and active member. “They believed that the election was just a ritual for the people to confirm their leadership. In the last five, 10 years, things show that that is false.”
Last week in the capital, Maputo, the police responded with violence when supporters took to the streets to greet the main opposition leader, Venâncio Mondlane, who returned to Mozambique after self-imposed exile. This fiery leader has won the support of young voters who seem to be their allies in the fight against a corrupt political party.
Mr. Mondlane, who claims to have won the election, has called for the protests to continue, although this week he did not attract the protests that closed the capital and other cities in the past months.
In an interview in Maputo, Mr. Mondlane said he had contacted Mr. Chapo for his friend. He expressed his hope that the president-elect will discuss the decision to end the political turmoil and accept the changes presented by him in the latest proposal. Those reforms include the construction of three million houses for Mozambique’s poor and the creation of a multibillion-dollar fund for women- and youth-led startups.
“You have to give people something very important and tangible,” said Mr. Mondlane. “I don’t know if all these things in my proposal will be satisfied or not. But I think we will start a discussion forum.”
Protests are still necessary, he added, because to ensure that changes will happen, “you have to put the government under pressure.”
Mr. Chapo, 48, emerged last year as a Frelimo presidential candidate. Unlike others in the group, he did not want to be promoted. He entered government positions 10 years ago, but faced a troubled political history a long time ago.
When he was 5 years old, he said, his family was kidnapped by Frelimo fighters 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 Frelimo.
Branquinho João da Costa, a 43-year-old doctor who lives part-time in Maputo, remembers his school days when the glory of Frelimo was instilled in him and his classmates with freedom songs. “It is very difficult to be completely cut off from Frelimo,” he said.
Many Mozambicans were already unhappy with the group because of allegations of corruption and its failure to deal with rising prices, which they called “a new form of human slavery.” Mr. da Costa said his friend’s Frelimo was closely linked to the party’s roots, and at the time was led by officials who did not care about wealth and power.
“The true purpose of Frelimo was to serve the people,” he said. “Now many of them, are fighting to get political positions just to respond.”
Frelimo no longer has the courage to ignore such criticism, some party members say. The past few months were 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 respond to people’s needs,” he said. That re-establishment includes a party that controls its government against wrongdoing, he added.
Mr. Muthisse, a former Frelimo official, said Parliament will no longer know the rubber stamp laws imposed by the president. The party must focus on reforming institutions, such as the electoral commission and the courts, in order to regain public trust.
That change should be the focus of discussions with the opposition, said Mr. Kiss him.
“Everyone should bring ideas,” he said, “so that in the next election, we all believe.”
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