Mozambique: Freedom House report on democracy ignores ‘several atrocities’ – NGO

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Mozambique: Freedom House report on democracy ignores ‘several atrocities’ – NGO

12:44 CAT | 06 Mar 2020

File photo: Lusa

The non-governmental organisation Centre for Democracy and Development said on Thursday that Freedom House, which placed Mozambique as a partly free country, ignored several atrocities, considering that the worst elections in history took place in 2019.

“This assessment is at least generous for Mozambique, a country that in 2019 had the worst elections in its history of multi-party democracy,” according to a note from the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) distributed to the press on Thursday.

In the Freedom House report released Wednesday, Mozambique is on the list of countries where democracy has retreated the most in the last year and has lost six points over the previous report, but is classified as partially free, with an overall score of 45 out of 100 possible points, earning 14 points in political rights and 31 in civil liberties.

The CDD said doubts about the quality of the census for the general elections on 15 October, the exclusion of candidates, irregularities on polling day, the arrest of political delegates from an extra-parliamentary party for alleged falsification of credentials and the murder of an activist and election observer in Gaza are evidence that Mozambique has stepped back considerably in terms of democracy.

On the other hand, the NGO said, the “secrecy” on the part of the government over attacks by armed groups that have already killed at least 350 people in Cabo Delgado (in the north of the country) is hurting a fundamental right of Mozambicans: the right to information.

“The region is only not in a declared state of emergency because the government continues to approach the problem with secrecy to hide the lack of strategy,” the CDD said, reiterating that Mozambique should be on the list of ‘spotlight’ countries, that is, states that deserve special attention and control concerning democracy in 2020.

In the Freedom House report, besides Mozambique, Benin and Tanzania are among the 12 states that suffered the greatest losses in 2019, a group that also includes Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Chile and India, Guinea-Conakry, Haiti, Mali, Nigeria and Venezuela.

In a 10-year assessment, Mozambique recorded a 14-point drop in overall rankings and is among the 29 countries that have suffered the worst over the decade.