General Elections, 9 October 2024

Floods, March 2024 

On 24 March 2024, torrential rain over Maputo resulted in significant flooding in the district. The rainfall occurred only 10 days after Hurricane Filipo had caused extensive damage and affected 57,178 people (OHCA, 2024). Over 15mm of rain was registered in 24 hours. The capacity of rivers and drainage systems had been severely compromised by Filipo, making neighborhoods near the rivers particularly vulnerable. Eight roads in Maputo city were declared inaccessible, and around 15 thousand people across different cities were affected due to the electric grid going down. This further led to risks of electrocution from wires and other electronic equipment ending up on the streets (ReliefWeb, 2024).  

In total, about 93,240 people were affected by the heavy rains, with 5 deceased and 3 injured. 11,133 houses were flooded and 99 were totally destroyed and at least 19 schools saw impacts from the floods (OCHA, 2024). 

Impact on electoral processes

The floods forced residents to evacuate, with many seeking shelter in schools designated as voter registration centers and brigade headquarters (Club of Mozambique, 2024). Some schools were engulfed by flood water, leading to below-acceptable work conditions for the registration brigade workers. As a result, at least 96 brigades and registration posts in Maputo were forced to close. Damaged roads in the Manica province limited electoral authorities' ability to deliver materials to polling stations (RTP África, 2024).  

Election observers expressed concern about the credibility of voter registration, due to discrepancies between the population and the voter registers (EU EOM, 2024). Beyond the floods, terrorism was also recognized as a challenge during the voter registration period (Jequete, B., 2024). 

Changes in procedures 

The president of the election commission in Manica announced that they were “training for greater flexibility” to avoid issues with registration (Jequete, B., 2024).