Former President Chissano acknowledges that ‘many things are not right’ in Mozambique

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Former President Chissano acknowledges that ‘many things are not right’ in Mozambique

12:55 CAT | 13 Jan 2025

Screen grab: TVM

Former President of Mozambique Joaquim Chissano acknowledged today that “there are many things that are not right” in the country, indicating that the Mozambican parliament must contribute to the search for solutions to the post-electoral crisis.

“I think there is a lot to discuss, there are many things that are not right in the country, we all know that, so we need to find ways to find solutions. The entire debate should be about finding solutions, recrimination, not recrimination as tactics, but finding solutions,” Chissano said to the media on the sidelines of the inauguration of the new parliamentary deputies.

Leaders of the five parties – Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), the Party for the Optimistic Development of Mozambique (Podemos), New Democracy (ND), the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM) and the Liberation Front of Mozambique (Frelimo) – met the Mozambican president, Filipe Nyusi, again on January 9, confirming the creation of technical working teams to discuss state reforms, including changes to the electoral law and the Constitution of the Republic.

Joaquim Chissano told the press that it would be up to parliament to debate the political agreements for their transformation into laws in the search for peace in the country.

“Always discuss to find the best solutions, the best laws that can be well implemented by institutions that must contribute to the creation of credible institutions, so that we remain united,” Chissano urged.

The Assembly of the Republic of Mozambique will swear in the deputies elected to the 10th legislature today, but two of the parties, Renamo and MDM, yesterday announced a boycott of the ceremony, contesting the electoral process, on a day when new protests are being called for in the country.

“The Renamo party understands that this ceremony is devoid of any solemn value and therefore constitutes a social outrage and disrespect for the will of Mozambicans, and therefore will not be part of this inauguration,” Renamo spokesperson Marcial Macome said on Sunday on the sidelines of a meeting of Renamo’s national political committee.

The 250 deputies elected to the 10th Legislature of the Assembly of the Republic – 28 from Renamo, compared to its previous 60 – were called to take office today at 10:00 a.m. local time (08:00 a.m. in Lisbon), at the parliament headquarters in Maputo, in a solemn ceremony to be led by the outgoing President of the Republic, Filipe Nyusi.

The eight members of parliament elected by the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM) – six in the legislature that has now come to an end – would also boycott the inauguration, the party’s president, Lutero Simango, told Lusa on Sunday.

The agenda for today’s formal session also included the election of the president of the Assembly of the Republic for the new legislature, a position previously held by Esperança Bias.

Frelimo, in power and which maintains the majority in parliament, nominated former Labour minister Margarida Talapa for that position.

According to information from the general secretariat of the Assembly of the Republic, in addition to Margarida Talapa – who was dismissed from her duties as Minister of Labour and Social Security on Thursday – the candidacy of Carlos Tembe and Fernando Jone were also received for the position of deputies to the parliament speaker, the second-highest-ranking figure in the Mozambican State after the President.

Both are making their debut as members of parliament for Podemos, a party that until now was extra-parliamentary and which supported the presidential candidacy of Venâncio Mondlane, becoming the largest opposition party, with 43 seats.

Contrary to Venâncio Mondlane’s request, the Podemos party leadership had already said that its deputies would take office.

Mondlane returned to Mozambique on Thursday, after two and a half months abroad, citing security concerns, and insists on not recognizing the results announced in the general elections of October 9, in which Frelimo elected its presidential candidate, Daniel Chapo, maintained its parliamentary majority, with 171 deputies, against the current 184, and all provincial governors, according to the results announced by the CC on December 23.

The process surrounding the general elections has been marked in the last two and a half months by social tensions, demonstrations and strikes contesting the results that have already caused almost 300 deaths and more than 600 gunshot wounds.

Source: Lusa