Decades ago, Mozambique’s liberation party, Frelimo, easily attracted adoring crowds. The promise of rescue from Portuguese colonizers and a life with employment and housing for all was an easy sell in a southern African country that suffered from a racist regime.
But when Frelimo’s Daniel Chapo became president on Wednesday, he assumed leadership of a country more unhappy with his party than at any time in its 50 years of independence. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets after October elections, which voters, international observers, opposition leaders and rights groups sharply criticized as fraudulent.
The country of 33 million inhabitants was shaken by political chaos since the vote. And today, Frelimo’s grip on power is being tested like never before, at a time when Mozambique faces pressing economic and social crises, analysts say. Two of the three opposition parties boycotted the opening of Parliament on Monday.
Voter anger has escalated into massive street protests in recent months, which have resulted in clashes with police. At least 300 people were killed.
Mr. Chapo and his party had likely hoped that Wednesday’s inauguration would help the country move toward reconciliation and stability. Instead, the challenges facing Frelimo’s leaders may be just beginning, political insiders say.
“Frelimo has become accustomed to seeing itself as the chosen party,” said Gabriel Muthisse, a former senior party official who remains an active member. “They thought elections were just a formality for the people to confirm their leadership. Over the last five or ten years, things have shown that to be false.
Last week, in Maputo, the capital, police responded with deadly force when supporters took to the streets to greet the main opposition leader, Venâncio Mondlane, who returned to Mozambique after a voluntary exile. The fiery populist has won the support of dissatisfied young voters who see him as an ally in their fight against a corrupt political elite.
Mr. Mondlane, who claims to have won the election, called for protests to continue, even though this week did not spark the mass demonstrations that paralyzed the capital and other cities in previous months.
In an interview in Maputo, Mr. Mondlane said he had communicated with Mr. Chapo through a mutual friend. He expressed hope that the president would negotiate a resolution to end the political crisis and accept the reforms put forward by him in a recent proposal. These reforms include building three million homes for poor Mozambicans and creating a half-billion-dollar fund for startups led by women and youth.
“You have to give people something very crucial and something tangible,” Mr Mondlane said. “I don’t know if all the elements of my proposal will be met or not. But I think we are going to start a platform for dialogue.
Protests are still necessary, he added, because to ensure the reforms are implemented, “you have to put pressure on the government.”
Mr. Chapo, 48, emerged last year as Frelimo’s surprise presidential candidate. Unlike other party members, he did not push for the nomination. He entered public service just 10 years ago, but was confronted long ago with the country’s troubled political history.
When he was 5, he said, his family was kidnapped by guerrilla forces fighting Frelimo during Mozambique’s 16-year civil war. A lawyer by training, he served as 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 living part-time in Maputo, remembers his primary school days when the glory of Frelimo was instilled in him and his classmates through freedom songs. “It is very difficult to be completely disconnected from Frelimo,” he said.
Many Mozambicans were now unhappy with the party due to accusations of corruption and its failure to combat rising prices, which it called “a new type of slavery for the people.” Mr da Costa said the Frelimo of his childhood was more in touch with the party’s socialist roots and was then led by officials who cared less about wealth and power.
“Frelimo’s real goal 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 Frelimo MP.
“We have to reinvent ourselves to meet people’s demands,” she said. This reinvention involves the party policing its own government against wrongdoing, she added.
Mr Muthisse, the former Frelimo official, said Parliament can no longer automatically approve laws proposed by the president. The party must 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 negotiations with the opposition, said Mr. Muthisse.
“Everyone must bring ideas,” he said, “so that we can all believe in them in the next elections.”
