Mozambican opposition unite in motion censure against the government: Smashed by Frelimo’s majority in parliament

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Mozambican opposition unite in motion censure against the government: Smashed by Frelimo’s majority in parliament

8:52 CAT | 01 Apr 2016

The Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Thursday rejected a motion of censure against the government moved by the main opposition party Renamo.

Renamo wanted to censure the government for its response to deputies’ requests for information earlier this month. Renamo had asked about the current politico-military situation, and did not like the response from Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosario who told Renamo that it should accept the offer from President Filipe Nyusi “for a constructive and unconditional dialogue in order to find paths that lead to n effective and lasting peace”.

Rosario stressed that “in any civilized and democratic state, there is no place for armed political parties. Thus the possession of guns by Renamo to blackmail the state and the population and force its rise to power by means of force is contrary to democracy”.

This was not what Renamo wanted to hear, and in its motion of censure it complained that the government’s replies had been “ambiguous” and “did not respond directly to the information requested”.

Moving the motion of censure, Renamo parliamentary spokesperson Carlos de Cruz, protested that Renamo members had not been integrated into the police – thus forgetting that Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama had categorically rejected a government offer to recruit demobilized Renamo fighters into the police force in the late 1990s.

More recently, following the September 2014 agreement on a cessation of military hostilities, Renamo simply refused to hand over the list of its men whom it wished included in the armed forces and police.

Cruz also made the standard Renamo claim that from 1994 onwards, every general election held in Mozambique has been fraudulent – an accusation not supported by any of the domestic or international election observer missions.

But members of the ruling Frelimo party on the Assembly’s Constitutional and Legal Affairs Commission dismissed Renamo’s motion as “mere political opportunism, in an attempt to deceive and manipulate public opinion”.

Far from censure, Frelimo argued, the government deserved praise for its “responsibility, pragmatism, realism, calm, competence and high sense of accountability”. It called on Renamo to disarm and to agree to a meeting between Nyusi and Dhlakama.

Frelimo deputy Conceicao Sortane declared that nothing positive could ever be expected from Renamo, and cited the old political aphorism “When the enemy attacks us, we know we are on the right path”.

The Renamo motion was rejected by 137 Frelimo votes against 88 votes from Renamo and the second opposition party, the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM).

Source: AIM