Mozambique Elections: Frelimo denies crisis after Machel letter demanding public apology

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Mozambique Elections: Frelimo denies crisis after Machel letter demanding public apology

2:59 CAT | 08 Nov 2023

Image: O País

Mozambique’s governing party, Frelimo, has denied that it is facing an internal crisis, in reaction to a letter from Graça Machel, widow of its first president, that warned of the “capture of the party’s administrative machine” by individuals who have estranged the party from its “meaning and reason for being”.

“Our perspective [for the October 11 general elections] was to win in all 65 municipalities. We didn’t get 65, we got 64. It’s difficult to say that we are in crisis after a victory like this,” declared Ludimila Maguni, Frelimo party spokesperson, quoted yesterday by the private channel STV.

At issue is a letter written by Mozambican social activist and senior Frelimo member Graça Machel, in which the widow of the first President of Mozambique, Samora Machel, argues that the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), the party in power, must “honestly recognize the defeats” and “apologise to the people”, considering that the organisation was “captured by a minority group”.

“The humility I refer to necessarily involves recognizing the mistakes made by Frelimo and, if necessary, apologising” and “it involves distancing ourselves from the minority group that captured part of the party machine”, Machel says in a letter to which Lusa had access yesterday.

For Frelimo spokesperson Manguni, Graça Machel’s position represents her private opinion, noting that there are appropriate places to debate the health of the party in power since independence in Mozambique in 1975.

“We are all members of a big family and the big family knows where the appropriate places are to discuss what is wrong and how, together, we can fix it,” the Frelimo spokeswoman declared.

Ludimila Maguni highlighted that there are appropriate bodies to evaluate the proposal of Graça Machel and other historical figures on the “urgent holding of a national meeting of cadres to reflect, in an open manner, on the life of the party”.

“If we believe that there is a need to hold a cadres’ meeting, the party has the appropriate bodies that take the decisions,” the Frelimo spokesperson stressed, adding that complaints warning of the existence of “infiltrators” within the party should name names, so that internal bodies can carry out “due diligence”.

Electoral observation groups, civil society, opposition parties and various other figures consider that the October 11 municipal elections were fraudulent, favouring Frelimo, which won in 64 of the country’s 65 municipalities.

For Graça Machel, “the inertia, inaction and complacency of [party] cadres allowed the generation and consolidation of the narrative that Frelimo is made up of thieves, murderers and arrogant [individuals]”.

On Monday, former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano stated that the affairs of Frelimo, the party he once led, must be dealt with internally, and that he would only comment on the local elections process after the final decisions of the Constitutional Council.

“Frelimo matters, in its own headquarters, not here. Because here I’m talking to America, I’m talking to Australia, no. I want to talk to Mozambicans, in Mozambique, and above all to members of Frelimo, so, not here,” Chissano said when asked by journalists about criticism within the ruling party of the October 11th municipal elections process.

“I will start thinking about this matter after hearing what the Constitutional Council says. For now, I remain silent. When I hear the Constitutional Council, then I will know. Because I don’t like to act hastily,” said Chissano, who served as President of Mozambique from 1986 to 2005.

Source: Lusa