Unpaid debts mean no ballot boxes; Electoral laws remain with wrong calendar - CIP Mozambique ...
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On Friday, the Maputo City Judicial Court will judge the injunction on the scheduling of the congress of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo, the largest opposition party), MP Venâncio Mondlane, who brought the case, announced on Monday.
“The sentence must oblige the party bodies to convene the congress within 10 days. We don’t know if this is what the judge will decide, but that’s our request, that’s what we put into our application,” said Renamo deputy Venâncio Mondlane after submitting a complaint to the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic of Mozambique in Maputo.
On February 23, Mondlane submitted two precautionary measures against the president of Renamo, Ossufo Momade, demanding in one the scheduling of the congress and in the other the annulment of dismissals allegedly made outside of his mandate, which ended on January 17.
Former Renamo guerrilla leader Timosse Maquinze also demanded, in Beira on Monday, the holding of a congress and the departure of the current leader, Ossufo Momade, amid strong criticism of his leadership.
“We no longer want him in the leadership of the party, along with its leadership. They are evoking laws that don’t exist, they are wrong and they are ruining democracy. What do they fear about others expressing their candidacy? This is democracy,” the former guerrilla leader told Lusa.
READ: Mozambique Elections: Mondlane files criminal complaint against Renamo president and MP – AIM
Mozambique Elections: Renamo arguments against injunction “neither plausible nor credible” – Watch
According to Mondlane, who has already announced his intention to run for the leadership, the judge will decide on Friday morning whether or not to give a “concrete deadline” for the party leader to set the date for the congress, at a time when Mozambican parties are already preparing for the general elections on October 9.
The hearing of the precautionary measure on the dismissals allegedly made outside of Momade’s mandate took place last Friday, Mondlane said, and the definitive order is now awaited, after the Judicial Court of the City of Maputo had, at the beginning of the month, banned the leader of Renamo from carrying out “structuring acts”.
“An interesting thing that has been highlighted is that there are no longer any arguments for carrying out these acts, much less for postponing the Renamo congress. (…) All arguments have fallen aside,” Mondlane said, adding that he expected a favourable result.
In addition to the date of the congress and the dismissals, Mondlane also complained to the court about being prevented from doing political work in Renamo delegations, considering the posture anti-democratic and anti-constitutional.
The politician said today that he had already had his manifesto ready for two months. It outlines strategies to make Renamo one of the “best parties in Southern Africa”.
“My desire to run is unshakable,” he concluded.
Venâncio Mondlane ran for Renamo in the local elections in Maputo last October, having led around 50 demonstrations with thousands of people in the capital against the official electoral results, which gave victory to the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo, the party in power).
Renamo has been led by Ossufo Momade since the death of Afonso Dhlakama in May, 2018, but the mandate of the party’s bodies expired on January 17. Even so, in January, the party’s spokesperson, José Manteigas, named Ossufo Momade as a candidate for the position of President of the Republic in the October general elections.
Even absent an elective congress or meeting of the national commission, three members of Renamo have already announced that they intend to run for the leadership of Renamo, in a year in which Mozambique holds general elections, including presidential ones. They are: Venâncio Mondlane, the deputy and former candidate for the Maputo municipality; Elias Dhlakama, the son of the party’s historic leader; and former deputy Juliano Picardo.
The mayor of Quelimane, Manuel de Araújo, said he was also studying the possibility of running.
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