Eleições autárquicas de 2018: como explicar o voto expressivo dos Matolensses, à favor da Renamo

Abstract

The Mozambican democratic process has its origins in the change of the 1990 constitutional charter that allowed the transformation of the state from socialist to democratic orientation, based on the general peace agreements of 1992 and the first general elections of 1994. This opening allowed the introduction of power with Law 9/96 helping to pass the Law on Local Authorities (Law 2/97) and the Law on Local State Bodies (Law 8/2003). The last local elections took place in 2018 and in the Municipality of Matola, the results were surprising, with the opposition facing the dominant party. This situation demonstrated the involvement of citizens in the political decision-making process and their role in determining the priorities and functioning of society. The present study aims to understand the behavior of voters in the Municipality of Matola, looking at the last local elections of 2018. To understand this phenomenon, the study favored theories: Party Identification Theory and negative votes theory. Thus, from a qualitative approach, the interviewees were identified from a non-probabilistic sample intentionally selected and obeyed the following criteria: social position and differentiated level of education. The research technique was the field and the data collection was through semi-structured interviews. The results show that all respondents agreed on the need for changes in governance and/or leadership at the local and/or national level, which means dissatisfaction with the performance of the current mayor, as well as the ruling party. In other words, the sanctioning vote.