MDM leader admits coalition with Renamo – Mozambique

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MDM leader admits coalition with Renamo – Mozambique

2:24 CAT | 31 Jan 2020

in file CoM

The president of the Municipal Council of Beira and former Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM) candidate for the last presidential elections, the party he leads, admitted the possibility in some degree of a coalition with the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), either pre- or post-election.

“I’m not going back to Renamo. I’m fine. But it is true that the two parties share a centre-right ideology. And if the future declares that there may be convergence… By [the hand of] destiny… Convergence cannot be avoided,” Daviz Simango said, speaking to Lusa in Lisbon.

“Convergence means that, if the two parties agree on a political front, they form a coalition,” he replied when asked how far the convergence of the MDM, the third largest in the country, with Renamo, the main Mozambican opposition party, to which he once belonged, might go.

“I think time will tell many stories in the future, whether it is worthwhile to have a coalition or not. And coalitions can be pre-election or post-election. Anything can happen. Therefore, we cannot close the door on the future,” he stressed.

Daviz Simango, however, discounted any possibility of him going back to Renamo.

“Go back to do what? I embarked on a new ‘marriage’. I am happy in the marriage and I will continue on it. There are certain divorces where it is not recommended to go back. And this is the case here,” he stressed.

Daviz Simango considered that his 10-year-old party “had the merit of breaking Mozambique’s political polarisation”.

“Democracy in Mozambique is very much based on armed democracy, and we are not an armed party,” he said.

For the MDM leader, the party remained alive in the midst of an armed democracy, and this “means that it is an extremely strong party”.

However, in the last general elections in the country, in 2019, the party only managed to capture six seats in parliament, against the 17 it previously held.

“These last elections were disastrous in terms of transparency and legitimacy. This has severely damaged our party. We had several members and nominee delegates who were simply arrested and harmed. So these are not the elections that Mozambicans had expected,” he said concerning the results.

Anyway, for Daviz Simango, “having six deputies is not the end of the world”.

“We have extremely good quality, and we will be vibrant in the Assembly of the Republic and show that we are capable,” he promised.

Filipe Nyusi was re-elected in the October 15 general elections for a second term as President of the Republic with 73% of the votes, the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), the party he leads, attaining an absolute majority in all constituencies – the 11 in Mozambique, plus Africa and the Rest of the World.

Ossufo Momade, leader of the largest opposition party, Renamo, came second, with 1,351,284 votes (21.88%), against 270,615 (4.38%) for Democratic Movement of Mozambique leader Daviz Simango.

In parliament, Frelimo, the party in power since independence in 1975, strengthened its majority to over two-thirds of the seats, with 184 of the 250 deputies, or 73.6% of the seats, with 60 for Renamo (24%) and six seats (2.4%) for the MDM.

Frelimo got 40 more deputies than five years ago, while Renamo lost 29 seats and the MDM 11.

Source: Lusa