Mozambique: Opposition party Renamo to put up leader as presidential candidate

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique: Opposition party Renamo to put up leader as presidential candidate

11:24 CAT | 04 Jan 2024

File photo: Lusa

The spokesman for Mozambique’s main opposition party, Renamo, has said that it is to put its current leader up as its candidate in next year’s presidential elections, despite criticism from some quarters demanding his resignation, accusing him of inertia.

“Ossufo Momade is our candidate and the president who is bringing success to the party,” declared José Manteigas, the party’s spokesman, during a news conference in Maputo on Thursday.

Renamo’s leadership has been criticised both externally and internally in recent months, with the former head of the party’s armed wing accusing Momade of inaction in the face of alleged irregularities in the municipal elections in the country in favour of the governing party, Frelimo, and of negligence in the face of the situation of the party’s recently demobilised guerrillas.

“The party leadership and the president of Renamo are not saying anything” about the irregularities in the elections, Timosse Maquinze, who was classified within Renamo as chief of staff of its armed wing until the recent demilitarisation, as part of the implementation of the peace agreements signed with the government in 2019, told Lusa last month.

“It seems to me that he has been bought,” Maquinze said of Momade. “There are municipalities that have been stolen from us and he seems to be tied down. He’s not saying anything about the problems with the demobilisation of the military either.”

But according to the party’s spokesman, Momade’s leadership has brought results. He pointed, by way of example, to the recent local elections, in which the party claims to have won in several places, including the capital, Maputo.

“It is common knowledge that Renamo won in many municipalities in the local elections and this victory means that there is good leadership,” argued Manteigas, referring to widespread doubts about the official results, which saw Frelimo all but sweeping the board as usual.

Momade took over the leadership of Renamo in 2018 after the death of Afonso Dhlakama, the party’s historic leader and founder, who died in May of that year from illness.

The next general elections, including the country’s seventh presidential elections, are scheduled for 9 October this year, at a projected cost of around 6.5 billion meticais (€96.3 million), according to the government’s budget for 2024.

As well as naming Momade as Renamo’s presidential candidate, the spokesman for the main opposition party criticised the proclamation by the Constitutional Council (CC) on Friday of Frelimo as the winner of the repeat elections in four municipalities in the country, meaning that it won control in 60 of the country’s 65 municipalities in the sixth local elections since independence.

“The validation and proclamation of such problematic election results, as is so often the case, embodies the Constitutional Council’s sponsorship of the electoral fraud that is already a culture implanted in this institution, which was supposed to be the legal and impartial reserve,” declared the Renamo spokesman.

The repeats of the 11 October vote took place on 10 December in 18 polling stations in Nacala-Porto (Nampula province), three in Milange and 13 in Gurúè (Zambézia) and in all 41 polling stations in Marromeu (Sofala) – that is, in the four municipalities in which the electoral process was not validated by the CC due to irregularities.

Mozambique’s sixth local elections were strongly contested by the opposition, which did not recognise the official results, and by civil society, with government critics alleging “mega-fraud” and dozens of demonstrations across the country.

Renamo, for its part, claimed victory in the country’s largest cities, including Maputo, on the basis of a parallel count based on the original minutes and public notices in these elections, but was officially declared the winner in only four municipalities – half of those it had previously held – while the third-largest party in parliament, the MDM, retained control in the municipality of Beira.

Source: Lusa