Mozambique: Mozambique Government Profile

President: Armando Guebuza

Armando Guebuza, from the ruling Frelimo party, succeeded Mozambique's long-time leader Joaquim Chissano in February 2005.

He won an additional term in office in the October 2009 elections with a landslide majority.

Frelimo, in power since it led the country to independence from Portugal in 1975, won 191 parliamentary seats out of 250 - enough to change the constitution at will.

Mr Guebuza, seen as welcoming of better foreign investment , beat his rivals, long-time leader of the opposition party Renamo, Afonso Dhlakama, and the chief of a new party, Daviz Simango, capturing 75.46 % of the presidential vote.

Mr Guebuza, a millionaire businessman, is under pressure to provide poor Mozambicans with the benefits of tourism and untapped mineral and energy resources that have started to draw foreign investors, particularly from neighbouring Africa\">South Africa.

And Guebuza, who made his fortune in the energy, transport and port industries, faces the new challenge of accommodating a new generation that was not born in the liberation struggle nor the 16-year civil war against Renamo.

He was a member of Frelimo's armed wing and played a leading role in Mozambique's struggle for independence. As a former interior minister in 1975 he ordered the expulsion of Portuguese citizens from the country.

His predecessor, Joaquim Chissano, became president in 1986 next the death of founding president, Samora Machel. Mr Chissano oversaw a move away from Marxism and the introduction of a multi-party constitution.

The constitution of the People's Republic of Mozambique became effective at midnight on 24–25 June 1975. Under the constitution and its revision enacted during 1977–78, Mozambique was a republic in which FRELIMO was the sole legal party. The president was the chief of national; the president of FRELIMO had to be the president of the republic. He acted on the advice of the Council of National Ministers, which he appointed and over which he presided. He as well appointed provincial governors. The position of prime minister was created in a 1986 constitutional revision. The National People's Assembly, with 226 members, was the supreme organ of the national. Elections to the Assembly were held in 1977 and 1986, with the candidates chosen from a single FRELIMO slate.

A revised constitution with a multi-party system of government came into force on 30 November 1990. The name of the country was changed from the People's Republic to the Republic of Mozambique. Governmental institutions remain otherwise unchanged. According to the 1990 constitution, the president is to be elected by universal adult suffrage for a five-year term and may be reelected on only two consecutive occasions. The Assembly of the Republic will replace the People's Assembly. Its 250 deputies are to be elected for five-year terms. The next elections were due in 2004.