Mozambique: President dismisses Secretary of State in Manica province
Photo: A Verdade
Without using state means to transport his supporters and make an apotheotic entrance to the Constitutional Council, Daviz Mbepo Simango submitted his candidacy for the post of President of Mozambique on Wednesday (12) and promised: “… to end the principle that the ruling party is the state, that is, no political party should mortgage or alienate the Mozambican state, at the cost of perpetuating a failed state”.
Simango, a defeated candidate for the presidency in 2009 and 2014, said that this year he wants to “be an instrument of Mozambicans to stop armed democracy and install a ‘de facto’ democracy based on the rule of law with strong and prestigious institutions, where the citizen, male, female, young, will be the centre of attention without discrimination, with clear separation of the three powers”.
“To end the principle that the ruling party is the state, that is, no political party should mortgage or alienate the Mozambican state at the risk of perpetuating a failed state. It is urgent to restore the credibility of the Assembly of the Republic [parliament], so that it is the privileged centre to supervise the Executive, and the President of the Republic may confront ideas with the deputies in a direct debate held in the plenary,” Simango said, adding that he wished to put at the service of Mozambicans his experience of good governance in the country’s second most important city.
The president of the Mozambican Democratic Movement (MDM) and mayor of Beira City promised to review the Constitution of the Republic to transform the Constitutional Council into a Constitutional Court, create a Court of Accounts, and ensure “direct election of Governors with due powers, as well as the monitoring by Provincial Assemblies of the budget, the plan of activities and [governor’s] duties; and ensure the direct election of the mayors, particularly the presidents of municipal councils”.
“The reduction of powers around the figure of the head of state, namely: in the cases of appointment of judicial magistrates; rectors of public universities; of the Governor of the Central Bank; of the administrators of public companies,” added Simango, who said he wanted to prevent fraud and corruption by installing “a strategic management area with five cornerstones, which should work in an interconnected way and complement each other, namely, an ethics charter, a clear regulatory framework, a code of conduct and good practices manuals and risk mapping and prevention tools”.
Constitutional Council “took too long to declare” unconstitutionality of EMATUM
In anticipation of the electoral manifesto, which he said would be shared with Mozambicans in the coming days, Daviz Simango highlighted five pillars: “preserving peace and democracy and consolidating national cohesion; economic development and job creation; development of infrastructure; development and social balance; and reinforcing Mozambique’s participation in the international context”.
Asked by @Verdade to comment on the ruling of the Constitutional Council declaring the nullity of the US$850 million loans contracted in 2013 by the government of Armando Guebuza in violation of the constitution and the Budget Law, the MDM presidential candidate responded: “I always said there were no debts, they were illegal.”
“And, even when things are unconstitutional, the Constitutional Council took too long to declare this,” Simango said.
By Adérito Caldeira
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