Mozambique: MDM schedules congress for December

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Mozambique: MDM schedules congress for December

7:35 CAT | 31 May 2021

Photo: Sala da Paz

The Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), the second largest opposition force in the country, has scheduled an extraordinary congress, to elect a new Party President, for 3-5 December, in the central city of Beira.

The decision was announced on Sunday at the end of a meeting in Beira of the MDM National Council.

The Congress is crucial for the MDM, since it will elect the successor to Daviz Simango, the founder and first president of the party, who died in South Africa of illness on 22 February.

MDM spokesperson Sande Carmona told reporters that the National Council did not draw up any profile for the party’s new President . That question, he said, will be analysed by the MDM National Political Commission, which will set up a working group to organise the election of the new leader.

Carmona said that currently all MDM members are regarded as eligible to run for the presidency of the party, and that will remain the case until the profile of candidates for the job is decided.

Carmona added that the National Council has decided that MDM Secretary-General Jose Domingos will continue to manage the Party until the Congress.

150 members from all the country’s provinces attended the National Council meeting. Carmona claimed that the party emerged from the meeting stronger and more cohesive, and prepared to face the forthcoming elections (municipal elections in 2023, and presidential, parliamentary and provincial elections in 2024).

The meeting, Carmona declared, showed the capacity of MDM members to continue working towards the objectives for which Daviz Simango had founded the party.

There are, so far, no candidates to fill the position left vacant by the death of Simango. But, according to a report by the independent television station STV, the names most frequently mentioned as likely candidates are Secretary-General Jose Domingos, a previous Secretary-General, Luis Boavida, and the head of the MDM parliamentary group, Lutero Simango, the brother of the late leader.

Source: AIM