Three long-serving Southern African leaders bade farewell to high office in 2004 and handed power to their chosen successors after largely free and fair elections, a development welcomed by analysts in the region. Polls in Malawi, Namibia and Mozambique saw the ruling parties celebrating victories for the candidates in line to succeed veteran leaders Bakili Muluzi, Sam Nujoma and Joaquim Chissano. The wins were, with the exception of Malawi, substantial enough to cement "consensus one-party states", with parliamentary opposition weakened, and more prominent roles for civil society as a focus for dissent, analysts told IRIN.