| Optimist Party for the Development of Mozambique | |
| Native Name: | Partido Otimista pelo Desenvolvimento de Moçambique |
| Abbreviation: | PODEMOS |
| Leader: | Hélder Mendonça |
| President: | Albino Forquilha[1] |
| Split: | FRELIMO |
| Headquarters: | Rua Gulamo Khan 32, Bairro Ferroviário, Maputo |
| Ideology: | Democratic socialism[2] Left-wing populism Machelism |
| Position: | Centre-left to left-wing |
| Colours: | Yellow Red Green |
| Seats1 Title: | Assembly of the Republic |
| Flag: | PODEMOS Mozambique.svg |
| Country: | Mozambique |
The Optimist Party for the Development of Mozambique (PODEMOS) is a Mozambican political party of the democratic socialist ideology founded on 7 May 2019 by a sector of the ruling Mozambican Liberation Front (FRELIMO) dissident from the leadership headed by President Filipe Nyusi.
PODEMOS was founded in 2018 when the electoral court rejected the independent candidacy of Samora Machel Jr., son of Samora Machel, the first president of Mozambique, for mayor of Maputo in the 2018 municipal elections. Many members of the Youth Association for the Development of Mozambique (AJUDEM), an internal political group of FRELIMO that supported Machel, participated in the founding of PODEMOS in May of the following year. Despite this, both Machel and the party have denied any mutual relationship. The party finally obtained legal registration a week after the announcement of its foundation, on 14 May.
During the second half of May and the first half of June, the party began collecting signatures to be able to present candidates in the 2019 presidential and parliamentary elections. Less than a month after its founding, on 11 June 2019, PODEMOS announced Hélder Mendonça, a little-known musician, as its presidential candidate.
In the 2024 Mozambican general election, PODEMOS won 31 seats in the Assembly of the Republic, along with running Venâncio Mondlane as their candidate for that year's presidential election.[3] [4]