Mozambique: MDM presidential candidate slams power elites

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Mozambique: MDM presidential candidate slams power elites

3:22 CAT | 03 Sep 2019

Picture: Lusa

The Democratic Movement of Mozambique’s presidential candidate has kicked off his campaign for the October 15 general elections with an attack on power elites in Mozambique, blaming them for the hidden debts scandal.

“Look at the hidden debts, which greatly hurt our people, making the lives of the majority more expensive,” Daviz Simango said at a rally in the district of Gúruè, Zambezia province on Sunday.

The hidden debts were secretly guaranteed by the previous government, leaving the country indebted, for economically unviable maritime protection projects, to the tune of more than US$2 billion.

Daviz Simango criticised the quality of laws passed by the Assembly of the Republic, historically dominated by the Liberation Front of Mozambique (Frelimo), saying that they have been unfavourable to the broad mass of the people.

“They pass laws that disadvantage the people, favouring an elite group to the detriment of the people, who suffer day after day,” the MDM leader and mayor of Beira, capital of Sofala province, said.

Daviz Simango promised, if elected, to improve the living conditions of the population in general, and civil servants in particular.

“Once we come to power, we will improve the salaries of teachers and nurses,” the leader of Mozambique’s third largest party asserted.

Mozambique is voting on October 15 this year, in the sixth general election since the introduction of the multiparty constitution in 1990.

Four candidates are running for president, including the current head of state Filipe Nyusi: Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) leader Ossufo Momade, MDM candidate Daviz Simango, and candidate from the United Movement for Integral Salvation (AMUSI) Extra-Parliamentary Action Party , Mario Albino.

Twenty-six political parties are competing for legislatures and provinces, but the ruling Frelimo Liberation Front of Mozambique, Renamo and the MDM are the best prepared to withstand the punishing 45-day electoral campaign in the 11 provinces which make up Mozambique’s vast national territory.

The general elections on October 15 will, for the first time, choose the governors of 10 provinces of the country, who will be elected from the heads of list of the competing parties.

The election of the provincial governors is a novelty resulting from the approval of a new decentralisation package, in the context of negotiations for the Maputo Peace and National Reconciliation Agreement signed on the 6th of last month [August].

Source: Lusa