The European Union observed the General elections that were held in Mozambique between 3 and 5 December 1999 to elect a president and the Assembly of the Republic.
Incumbent president Joaquim Chissano won a narrow victory against Afonso Dhlakama, whilst Chissano's FRELIMO party won the Assembly elections, taking 133 of the 250 seats.
This was one of the first decisions of EU Common Foreign and Security Policy after the establishment of the EU competence by the Maastricht Treaty. Before 2000, election observations were deployed and formated on an ad hoc political basis.
Precise criteria whether to deploy or not, as well as detailled working structure and methodology were defined in the EC Communication COM2000(199).
