Mozambique to attend Commonwealth Law Ministers Meeting in Tanzania
The Frelimo Political Commission unanimously agreed to propose Filipe Nyusi for a second term as party president at the Frelimo 11th Congress which starts Tuesday 26 September in Matola. Other candidates can be proposed from the floor, but the Political Commission decision means that various half-hearted attempts to unseat Nyusi have failed and he will be the Frelimo presidential candidate in October 2019 national elections.
The Frelimo leadership is composed of various overlapping factions with former presidents Joaquim Chissano and Armando Guebuza still having power. Thus the election of new people to the Political Commission at the Congress and subsequent ministerial changes by Nyusi will be the most important part of the Congress.
The shifted balance of power will be important in the debate inside the party on three issues:
+ negotiations with Renamo and what concessions will be allowed on decentralisation and inclusion of Renamo generals;
+ economic policy and further response to the Kroll report and the $2bn secret debt (Will information be released on the use of the money as demanded by the IMF, will there be prosecutions, and will there be an attempt to recover money?); and
+ election policy for 2018 local elections and 2019 national elections, with one group within the party simply saying that Frelimo always wins and has the only effective electoral machine, but with another group warning that the secret debt and failure to reduce rural poverty has tarnished Frelimo and could result in a Trump-style anti-establishment backlash.
None of these will be explicitly decided at the Congress. But Frelimo works by consensus, and the Congress will decide the internal balance of forces which in turn will shape the internal negotiations over the coming months.
By Joseh Hanlon
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