CORRUPTION ASSESSMENT: MOZAMBIQUE - World Bank

• Support development of anticorruption campaigns and strategies, as well ascorruption monitoring mechanisms at the municipal level. Where possible, theseanticorruption campaigns and strategies can be linked to existing corruptionreporting centers and action encouraged to achieve administrative remedies, if notlegal remedies in the courts, for citizen grievances about alleged corruption.• The mass media should be strengthened at the local level – especially radio – as avehicle to educate the public about their rights, as well as an outlet forinvestigative journalism about corruption issues. Regional associations ofjournalists can also be developed and/or strengthened.7.2 Political PartiesThe existing political party system in Mozambique, dominated by the two primarypolitical parties, Frelimo and Renamo, in many ways serves to deepen the lack ofaccountability, transparency, and effectiveness that characterizes the broader politicalsystem.While the country has nominally transitioned to a multi-party electoral democracy,virtually all of the contestation between the two parties happens at the ballot box. Aftersignificant results in the 1994 and 1999 elections, Renamo lost considerable support inlast year’s general elections and has yet to gain access to the all-important Mozambicanstate. A dominant fact of Mozambican political life is the blurring of the line betweenparty (Frelimo) and state, thus rendering separation and balance of power a meaninglessconstruct that does little to check the excesses of any branch of government or of theparty. The team was struck by the minimal relevance of the National Assembly in all ofour discussions, and the domination of the judiciary by political interests is discussedelsewhere in this report. The result of these conditions is that a) political competition—the most basic opportunity for citizens to hold government accountable—isn’t aneffective recourse to check the problem of corruption, and b) branches of government donot provide avenues of oversight and control.Corruption in political party finance and electionsThe dominance of the Presidency, combined with the weak legislative branch, ensuresthat electoral politics in Mozambique is a winner-take-all game. This raises the stakes atelection time for both parties—an encouragement for corrupt behavior, such as votebuying, inappropriate use of government resources for campaigning by the party inpower, sourcing campaign finance from inappropriate sources, and electoral fraud. Infact, while all of these behaviors have been noted in past elections, their level has so farnot been so great that they are believed to have invalidated overall election results.A political party is eligible for National Assembly seats and state funding once it hasachieved five percent of the total vote in any given National Assembly election.However, this has so far resulted in only a few seats in the National Assembly for oneFINAL REPORT 45