Mozambique: Mozambicans Approach Election With Critical Outlook On Their Parliamentarians

26 September 2024
Afrobarometer (Accra)
By Asafika Mpako and Stephen Ndoma

Majority say elected officials should prioritise voters' demands rather than their own ideas.

Key findings

  • Six in 10 Mozambicans (60%) say elected officials should prioritise voters' demands rather than their own ideas.
  • Only one-fifth (20%) of citizens say MPs "often" or "always" try their best to listen to what ordinary people have to say.
  • About two in 10 respondents (22%) report contacting an MP in the past year to give them their views or discuss a problem.
  • Mozambicans are divided as to who should make laws: 50% say it's Parliament, while 41% say it's the president.
  • A majority (57%) of citizens say their elections work well to ensure that Parliament reflects voters' views, but fewer than half (43%) see elections as an effective tool for removing leaders who don't do what the people want.
  • Only 44% of respondents say the president should explain to Parliament how his government spends taxpayers' money.
  • Nearly four in 10 respondents (38%) say that "most" or "all" MPs are involved in corruption. Another 38% say that "some" are corrupt.
  • Only 42% of Mozambicans say they trust their MP "somewhat" or "a lot," while 51% say they trust them "just a little" or "not at all."
  • Half (51%) of citizens "approve" or "strongly approve" of the way their MPs have performed their job over the past 12 months, while 35% express disapproval.

For a parliament to be responsive to citizens' needs, it needs to be transparent, accessible, and accountable to the people it is meant to serve (People's Assembly, 2021). Other critical aspects include conducting the public's business with integrity, ensuring that the public interest is front and centre, and creating meaningful opportunities for citizens to participate in policy- and decision-making. Finally, a parliament should be inclusive and effective.

On paper, Mozambique operates on the principle of the separation of powers, with distinct and independent roles assigned to the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. In practice, some observers argue that the picture looks very different. For example, President Filipe Nyusi caused a public row when he took a unilateral decision to grant amnesty to young men accused of inciting terrorist attacks, a power that is supposed to belong to Parliament. Worse still, the judiciary was yet to hand down the young men's sentences (Bertelsmann Stiftung, 2024).

There are also concerns about Parliament's failure to safeguard essential freedoms, including freedom of expression and of the media. In 2023, legislators passed a law criminalising the spread of false information about terrorism, while other bills, still in draft form, propose to ban the rebroadcasting of foreign political shows and limit the number of foreign correspondents stationed in Mozambique (Human Rights Watch, 2023).

With presidential and legislative elections coming up in October, how do Mozambicans perceive their members of Parliament (MPs)?

The most recent Afrobarometer survey shows fairly weak public insistence on basic parliamentary functions: Only half of citizens think it's Parliament's job - rather than the president's - to make laws, and even fewer say MPs should hold the president accountable for how his administration spends taxpayers' money.

A majority of Mozambicans want elected officials to prioritise voter demands rather than their own ideas, but only a minority believe that MPs actually listen to them. One in five respondents say they contacted an MP in the past year about some important problem or to give them their views.

Significantly, half of those surveyed say that in practice, the country's elections do not enable voters to remove non-performing leaders from office.

Most citizens see at least "some" MPs as corrupt, and trust in parliamentarians is at its lowest point in two decades. But despite a concomitant decline in approval ratings, half of respondents rate the performance of their MP positively.

Asafika Mpako Asafika is the communications coordinator for Southern Africa

Stephen Ndoma Stephen is the assistant project manager for Southern Africa

Read the original article on Afrobarometer.

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