Mozambique: Renamo deputies stage protest in parliament as they resume sittings
File photo: Twitter
Mozambique’s National Electoral Commission (CNE) yesterday announced the rejection of the candidacy for the October municipal elections in the Maputo municipality of Samora Machel Junior, the son of the first Mozambican president, a CNE spokesman said.
According to Paulo Cuinica, quoted on the O Pais website, the decision was based on the lack of substitutes in the list submitted by the Mozambican Youth Development Association (Ajudem), a civil society group that is supporting the independent candidacy of Samora Machel Junior.
Samora Machel Junior’s candidacy was at risk after four members of the AJUDEM’s list requested the National Election Commission withdraw them from the document, claiming that they had been added against their will.
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Mozambique’s electoral law provides for the withdrawal of a candidate by means of a declaration signed by the candidate and recognised by a notary, and with the due knowledge of the political party or groups of proposing citizens for which the candidate is standing, within ten days of publication of the lists.
Speaking to Lusa today, AJUDEM’s candidacy representative Zefanias Langa, said that he was “astonished by the decision” of the CNE, since his association had received no notification that the four persons had qualified to leave the list.
“We have no idea what is happening. We are all astonished,” Langa said.
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AJUDEM decided to support Samora Machel Júnior after his candidature for Maputo mayor in the internal elections of the ruling Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) patry was rejected for reasons not publicly disclosed.
The son of Samora Machel, Mozambique’s first president, then appealed to the Frelimo Political Commission, but the body never ruled on the matter and the process ended with the election of Eneas Comiche as Frelimo candidate.
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In the early hours of Wednesday, burglars as yet unidentified broke into AJUDEM’s offices.
“They just took documents from the treasury and the institution’s chequebook, leaving the computers and other devices. We got the impression that they wanted something, maybe our stamp, but it wasn’t there,” Langa told Lusa on Wednesday, adding that members of the organisation have been threatened.
Samora Machel Júnior was born to Samora and Josina Machel during the national liberation struggle in 1969. Josina Machel died in 1971, and Samora Machel later married Graça. Samora Machel became the first post-independence Mozambican president, serving from 1975 and 1986, the year of his death.
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