Mozambique Elections: Frelimo stalwart demands discussion on president’s succession

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Mozambique Elections: Frelimo stalwart demands discussion on president’s succession

6:32 CAT | 04 Apr 2024

Photo: O Pais

Óscar Monteiro, a historic militant of the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo, the ruling party), demanded on Thursday that Filipe Nyusi’s succession to the presidency be included on the agenda of the organisation’s veterans’ meeting.

“There’s an elephant in this room (…) the succession to power, we’re too late, and we risk losing [in next October’s general elections] if we continue on this path,” said Óscar Monteiro.

The activist was speaking directly to the president of Mozambique and Frelimo, Filipe Nyusi, at the start of the meeting of the National Council of the Association of National Liberation Struggle Combatants (ACLLIN), a political arm of the ruling party.

“Society also has other expectations of this meeting. Unfortunately, our Central Committee has not been up to the task, let me say with the same frankness with which we should speak and which should characterise us during this meeting,” said Óscar Monteiro.

The veteran of the national liberation struggle said he hoped that relations with the current head of state and leader of Frelimo would “continue to be as good and fraternal as they have been”, following his stance on the succession.

Óscar Monteiro joined Frelimo when the ruling party was still an armed movement fighting Portuguese colonialism and was a minister after the country’s independence in 1975.

ACLLIN’s agenda does not include the item on the choice of Frelimo’s candidate for next October’s presidential elections, for which the current President of the Republic and of the party cannot run again because he has already reached the two-term limit allowed by the Constitution of the Republic.

Frelimo’s Central Committee will meet on Friday and Saturday in the city of Matola, Maputo province, but the agenda for the meeting has not yet been released.

The secretary general of ACLLIN, Fernando Faustino, recently said that the next meeting of the Central Committee would not include a debate on Filipe Nyusi’s succession.

“As far as I know, on the 5th and 6th, the Central Committee will meet and already has its agenda for that meeting and, as far as I know, the issue of succession or presidential candidates is not on it,” he said.

Faustino dismissed comments that the process of choosing a party candidate for the October presidential elections is dragging on, stressing that “Frelimo is organising itself on time”.

“I think that’s relative, delay in relation to what,” asked the ACLLIN secretary-general, acknowledging, however, that “it’s not an easy process”.

Fernando Faustino defended the party’s need to select a candidate who matches the aspirations of the Mozambican population and has proven competence.

Mozambique will hold its seventh presidential and legislative elections on 9 October, the second for provincial governors and the fourth for provincial assemblies.

Source: Lusa