MDM registers for municipal elections – AIM Report

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

MDM registers for municipal elections – AIM Report

9:05 CAT | 26 Jun 2018

In File CoM

The opposition Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) on Thursday registered with the National Elections Commission (CNE) to take part in the municipal elections scheduled for 10 October.

Speaking to reporters after depositing the necessary documents with the CNE, the MDM national election agent, Jose Manuel de Sousa, told reporters his party is convinced of victory in all 53 municipalities.

“Our expectations are always positive”, he said. “Today the MDM is increasing in strength, and is able to participate effectively so that we have absolutely no constraints. The MDM has always said, and will continue to say, that we enter this race in order to win”.

He said he was not worried by the fact that the rapporteur of the MDM parliamentary group, Venancio Mondlane, has declined nomination as the head of the MDM list (i.e. its mayoral candidate) in Maputo.

Sousa added that the MDM has many competent members who can replace Mondlane as head of the party’s Maputo list. “Everything is being done so that, in good time, we present our head of the list in Maputo”, he said. “We don’t have problems in finding figures who can represent us at all levels”.

But other senior MDM figures are refusing to stand on the MDM lists, or are threatening to leave the party. MDM parliamentary deputy Ricardo Tomas refused nomination for mayor of Tete city, citing divisions in the Tete MDM delegation. Antonio Frangoulis, once a senior police officer, who defected from Frelimo to the MDM in 2014, has promised to abandon the MDM because he considers it “undemocratic”. The Mayor of Quelimane, Manuel de Araujo, has threatened to leave the party because he took issue with remarks made by Luis Boavida, spokesperson for the MDM Political Commission that were critical of Mondlane and Frangoulis.

But none of this seemed to bother Sousa. “The MDM is a party with a democratic spirit”, he said. “We regard this as an epic, as a voyage. There are sailors who fall, but this does not stop the ship from continuing and reaching port successfully”.

Sousa denied that there was any crisis in the MDM. “We are a democratic party, where the members are free to express themselves democratically. So this isn’t a threat, it’s a normal situation, because when somebody finds he is unable to remain in a party for this or that reason, naturally he is free to leave”.

The MDM was the last of the three parliamentary parties to register for the elections. The ruling Frelimo Party and the rebel movement Renamo registered earlier this week. Three minor parties have also registered. They are the Humanitarian Party of Mozambique (PAHUMO), the Party of Democratic Justice, and the Action Party of the United Movement for Complete Salvation. PAHUMO has one member in the Nampula Municipal Assembly, while the other two are unknown.

Source: AIM