Electoral system for national legislature

Law No. 8/2013 of 27^th February 2013

Article 167
Mode of Election

167.1 The deputies of the Assembly of the Republic are elected by closed plurinominal lists in each constituency, with voters having a single list vote.

Article 165
Distribution of Deputies by Constituencies

165.1 The total number of deputies per constituency within the national territory is two hundred and forty-eight, distributed proportionally according to the number of voters in each constituency.

165.2 To determine the number of deputies elected by each constituency in the national territory, proceed as follows:

1. Count the total number of registered voters in the national territory.
2. Divide the total number of registered voters by two hundred and forty-eight, thus obtaining the quotient corresponding to each constituency.
3. Count the total number of voters per constituency in the national territory.
4. Divide the total number of voters in each constituency by the quotient approved in line b) of this sub-article.

165.3 When the rest of the division calculations referred to in the preceding sub-article (d.) exceed half of the quotient, the respective constituency is conferred the right to elect more than one deputy.

165.4 One deputy corresponds to each constituency outside the country.

Article 170
Conversion of votes to mandates

The conversion of votes to mandates is done according to the method of proportional representation, and a variation of the Hondt method, obeying the following rules:

1. Count and separate the number of votes received by each list per respective constituency.
2. The number of votes cast per list is divided successively, by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, etc., with the quotients aligned in descending order by quantity, in a series of terms determined by the number of mandates assigned to the respective constituency.
3. The mandates pertain to the lists that correspond to the terms of the series established in the preceding rule, with each list receiving as many mandates as its term in the series.

In the even that there remains a mandate to distribute and that the terms of the series are the same for different lists, the mandate shall be accorded to the list that obtained the lower number of votes.

The Mozambique elections are conducted through a closed-list proportional representation system in multi-member constituencies. The proportional representation system was adopted to help deepen the reconciliation process between the resistance group turned political party, RENAMO, and the ruling administration.

The conversion of votes into seats was in accordance with the d’Hondt method, with a 5% threshold.