DEMOCRACY ON TRIAL IN MOZAMBIQUE

October 2025

Editos/Fondemos’ view

FONDEMOS’ VIEW

In Mozambique, the October 2024 elections revealed a familiar script of authoritarian survival.

Venâncio Mondlane, the opposition leader whose campaign drew record crowds unseen since the 1990s, was on the verge of challenging Frente de Libertação de Moçambique’s (FRELIMO)’s decades-long grip on power. But independent observers from the EU documented “unjustified alterations” in vote counts. In many districts, results were never published at all.

The regime didn’t bother with old-style ballot-stuffing. It simply destroyed tally sheets and invented numbers.

And when Mondlane’s allies prepared to bring evidence before the Constitutional Council, two of them – lawyer Elvino Dias and official Paulo Guambe – were murdered. Then, as the Associated Press reports, the post-election crackdown left over 300 people dead and thousands injured or jailed.

Now the regime is seeking to prosecute Mondlane over the civil unrest that followed the election. He was shown by the prosecutor a 40-page document laying out a series of accusations including that he incited the unrest.

For global democrats, Mozambique offers a brutal reminder: resistance movements must prepare not only to win the vote, but to survive the retaliation. The struggle does not end on election day. It begins anew the morning after.

“What is most hurtful to me is not being able to be with the people on the streets, to take part in their fight and in their protests, to lead these demonstrations. This pains me every single day.”

Venâncio Mondlane