Mozambique: Eradication of terrorism demands community empowerment - AIM
File photo
Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo Party on Wednesday night condemned as a flagrant violation of the electoral law the declarations by Afonso Dhlakama, leader of the rebel movement Renamo, that Frelimo was planning massive fraud in the second round of the mayoral by-election in the northern city of Nampula.
Interviewed on Wednesday’s lunchtime news on the independent television station STV, Dhlakama claimed that Frelimo was bussing in large numbers of people from all over the country to vote illicitly in Nampula. He claimed that these busloads of fake voters came from as far afield as Niassa province on the far north, and Maputo in the far south.
Dhlakama said this supposed fraud undermined the talks between the government and Renamo. He threatened to end the talks and “go back to square one”. He menaced that, if something was not done to stop the alleged Nampula fraud, he would organise “a revolution of the entire people” to remove Frelimo from power.
The Frelimo first secretary for Nampula district, Leonel Namuquita, said these threats were a form of intimidation and a flagrant breach of the law (since they amounted to campaigning on behalf of the Renamo candidate, Paulo Vahanle, at a time when campaigning is forbidden).
He pointed out that Dhlakama is not in Nampula, and so the people he has sent to Nampula must be passing false information onto him. (Dhlakama has been living in a Renamo military base in the central district of Gorongosa since late 2015).
He categorically denied that Frelimo was bringing in people from outside the municipality who have no right to vote in Nampula. But Namuquita pointed out that anybody who registered as a voter in 2013 or 2014, but is currently living outside of the city, has every right to return and to vote. Registered voters cannot be denied that right, regardless of their current place of residence.
Namuquita said “I cannot understand Renamo’s insistence in bringing up a problem that does not exist”.
Dhlakama also claimed there had been a plot to kidnap Vahanle. He said there had been a meeting at the Nampula Provincial Police Command on Monday, where a director of SISE (State Security and Intelligence Service) from Maputo said he had come from the capital with orders to ensure that Frelimo won the election. He wanted to set up “a clandestine group of courageous men” to kidnap Vahanle before the vote.
Dhlakama did not explain how he, in the Gorongosa bush, could possibly know details of a secretive meeting held among police and security official in Nampula.
But in the event Vahanle was not kidnapped, no busloads of fake voters showed up, and Vahanle won the election, a result which Dhlakama clearly did not expect.
Leave a Reply
Be the First to Comment!
You must be logged in to post a comment.
You must be logged in to post a comment.