“The results of the up-coming local elections may sketch possible outcomes for the 2004 legislative and presidential elections,but only in a very limited manner, as the rural population, which represents the majority of the Mozambicans,is excluded, for the time being, from participating in the election of local government structures. More importantly, the electoral contest will show the level of both horizontal and vertical democratisation in Mozambique, indicate the likely behavioural tendencies
of political parties in next year’s presidential and legislative polls, and therefore be a reliable predictor of things to come.”
