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Resistência Nacional Moçambicana (Renamo), after being supported by the Apartheid regime, became a legitimate political party during the first multi-party elections (1994), gaining 35 percent of the vote. After making significant progress until 1999, it started to decline, obtaining only 16 percent of the vote in the October 2009 general elections, in the midst of a serious internal crisis. Does its poor capacity to develop a credible political opposition come from the military nature of its leadership? Does the meaning of the vote represent allegiance or support in the context of increasing neo-patrimonial practices due to a gradual merging of the state and Frelimo, the party that has been assuming power since 1994? In any case, regional unbalances in the country hamper the creation of a third political force that would be able to grow only if it seized the social basis of Renamo.