Council endorses October elections: new parliament installed.

• Position: Mozambique - Includes a chronology of UN-Mozambique relations

The first ever multi-party elections in Mozambique, held from 27 to 29 October, were declared "free and fair" on 19 November by the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Mozambique, Aldo Ajello. In a statement made following the announcement by the National Elections Commission (NEC) that Mozambique's incumbent President Joaquim Chissano had won the election, Mr. Ajello said the outcome of the presidential election and the composition of the new assembly "reflect the will of the Mozambican voters". The electoral process, he said, had been "characterized by the impartiality, the dedication and the high degree of professionalism" of the electoral authorities, and had been "distinguished by the strong commitment of the political players to let the principles of democracy prevail".

'Massive turnout'

On 2 November, while ballots were still being counted, the Special Representative had reported a "massive voter turnout nationwide", with more than 90 per cent of the registered electorate having voted in some provinces. Voting had been "characterized by a remarkable absence of violence, intimidation and coercion", and the UN had received "no information about any major irregularity, incident or breach" of the electoral law.

On 19 November, the NEC announced that President Chissano had received 2,633,740 votes, or 53.3 per cent of those cast. A total of 5,402,940 persons, representing 87.9 per cent of all registered voters, had participated in the presidential election.

Afonso Dhlakama, President of the Mozambique Resistance Movement (RENAMO), received 1,666,965 votes, or 33.7 per cent. The third largest number of votes--2.9 per cent--had been received by Wehia Ripua of the Partido Democratico de Mocambique.

In the legislative election, the Frente de Libertacao de Mocambique (FRELIMO) took the largest share of the votes with 2,115,793 (44.3 per cent), followed by RENAMO with 1,803,506 (37.8 per cent) and the Uniao Democratica (UD) with 245,793 (5.2 per cent). Those three parties would have the following share of the new Parliament's 250 seats: FRELIMO--129, RENAMO--109 and UD--12. Twelve candidates had participated in the presidential election, and 14 political parties and coalitions in the legislative election.

Call for national reconciliation

Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali on 19 November called on all Mozambicans to "begin the task of national reconciliation and to ensure that peace and stability prevail".

The Security Council on 21 November endorsed the results and called on the parties to "stand by their obligation to accept and fully abide" by them. In resolution 960 (1994), it urged continuing the process of national reconciliation based on "a system of multi-party democracy...