Africa-Press – Mozambique. Doubts over the credibility of Mozambique’s 2024 general elections, along with ensuing widespread protests, weighed heavily on the country’s negative assessment in the Global Report on the State of Democracy (GSoD) 2025 report.
Mozambique fell between one and 13 places in the four categories used to assess democratic performance: Representation, Rights, Rule of Law, and Participation.
“The technical aspects of the elections presented problems worse than expected, even though Mozambique has been performing very poorly for some time,” said Alexander Hudson, one of the authors of the GSoD report produced by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA).
The expert added that “the high levels of violence in the protests that followed, in which hundreds of people were killed, mark a significant deterioration” in Mozambique’s performance.
The report notes that 35 countries (20% of those covered) recorded declines in the Credible Elections indicator compared to 2019, including Mozambique, Pakistan, Georgia and South Korea.
Daniel Chapo, candidate of the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) – the ruling party since the country’s independence in 1975 – was proclaimed the winner of the election for president with 65.17% of the votes in the general elections on 9 October.
The electoral process was criticised by international observers, who pointed out several irregularities, and led to violence and protests in the streets.
The protests were incited by Venâncio Mondlane, a presidential candidate then supported by the Podemos party, who claimed victory and who, according to the Constitutional Council, came in second place with 24.19% of the votes.
Africa is one of the regions where there have been many declines in electoral representation and the credibility of elections, partly due to the increase in coups d’état in the Sahel region in recent years.
Guinea-Bissau was one of the worst-performing countries in the 2025 report, falling in almost all categories and only maintaining its 126th position in the Rights index.
Angola, Cabo Verde and Timor-Leste improved moderately in all categories, with the exception of the Rule of Law, where Angola remained in 116th place in the ranking, while Cabo Verde fell to 50th and Timor-Leste to 66th.
São Tomé and Príncipe was not included in this study.
The Global Report on the State of Democracy is produced annually by the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), based on information from 22 institutional sources, including the UN.
The study uses a total of 154 indicators to rank 173 countries in four main categories of democratic performance: Representation, Rights, Rule of Law and Participation.
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