Mozambique: Frelimo CC meeting again ends without a decision on presidential candidate

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Mozambique: Frelimo CC meeting again ends without a decision on presidential candidate

11:56 CAT | 04 May 2024

Screen grab: Miramar

The extraordinary session of the Frelimo Central Committee, which began on Friday, ended today again without choosing the candidate that the party in power in Mozambique will support in the October 9th general elections for President of the Republic.

Today’s work ended at around 8:30 pm local time and according to party sources, the 254 members of the Central Committee of the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) will meet again on Sunday, the third consecutive day, at 10:00 , to discuss the list of candidates to succeed Filipe Nyusi as head of state, which will still have to be voted on.

Party sources indicate that after two days of meetings – the extraordinary session of that body had only been called for Friday and the closing session had been announced for 2pm today – at the party school in Matola, outskirts of Maputo, there has still been no consensus on the list of names to be submitted to a vote by the Central Committee, the highest body between congresses.

This afternoon, in one of several interruptions in work, the member of the Frelimo Central Committee Celso Correia, also Minister of Agriculture, stated that the time that body is taking to choose the candidate for President of the Republic is “normal ” in a “succession” context.

“No, it’s never difficult. Normally beautiful babies have difficult births and ours will definitely be a very beautiful baby”, said Celso Correia, speaking to journalists this afternoon, during a break in the extraordinary session of the Central Committee, which is meeting since Friday, in Matola, on the outskirts of Maputo, to define the ruling party’s candidate to succeed Filipe Nyusi as [candidate to] head of state.

READ: Mozambique: Frelimo political commission proposes three pre-candidates – Lusa

“We are in the process of choosing the Frelimo candidate, who has a great chance of being President of the Republic. It is normal for members to have this time for joint reflection, because activists come from all over the country with different sensibilities. It is part of our history and It is part of our genesis to have this type of approach (…) History is written, all successions have their own history and take their time. We had times when the [candidate for] President was chosen in 15 days. there are two, but in an environment of harmony”, Correia assured.

The party’s Central Committee asked on Friday for more names on the list of candidates for President of the Republic, announced Teodoro Waty, a member of that body.

“It is convenient that more names appear and when more names are presented it is clear that it is more democracy”, Teodoro Waty, a historic member of the party’s Central Committee, told journalists on Friday.

According to internal information that Lusa had access to on Friday afternoon, later confirmed by the party, the list, which includes the current Friday secretary general, Roque Silva, was approved at the Political Commission meeting during the morning. and submitted immediately afterwards to the extraordinary session of the Central Committee.

It is up to the Central Committee, the party’s highest body between congresses, to approve Frelimo’s candidate for the October presidential election, which may also decide to add other candidates.

In addition to Roque Silva, the list of the Political Commission – whose meeting began on Thursday to approve the document lasted throughout the morning and much of the afternoon on Friday – also includes Damião José, member of the political committee, and Daniel Chapo, governor of Inhambane province.

The deadline for presenting the lists of candidates for President of the Republic in the October elections to the Constitutional Council was June 10th, before the changes approved by parliament on Tuesday. With these changes, the deadline will be around June 25.

READ: Mozambique: New dates now for submitting candidates for President of the Republic – Carta

Mozambique will hold its seventh presidential and legislative elections on October 9, the second for provincial governors and the fourth for provincial assemblies.

The Frelimo Central Committee has been followed by all media outlets throughout these last few days and speculation rife over who will be the names summitted to vote by the Central Committee.

Watch.