Mozambique: President-elect stresses need to maintain peace

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Mozambique: President-elect stresses need to maintain peace

1:06 CAT | 13 Jan 2025

Photo: Luisa Nhantumbo/Lusa

Access to the Mozambican parliament was severely restricted this morning, with several barricades by police and military personnel, hours before the inauguration of deputies elected to the 10th legislature.

Maputo woke up deserted, with practically no transport working and with several arteries surrounding parliament cut off

Mozambican president-elect Daniel Chapo highlighted this Monday the need to maintain peace and stability in the country, asking for the collaboration of the new parliament, sworn in this Monday, in his governance.

“The appeal I would like to make (…) is really the need to maintain peace, social, economic and political stability in our country, so that we can continue to develop our country,” Daniel Chapo said in statements to journalists at the Assembly of the Republic in Maputo, before the start of the inauguration ceremony of the deputies elected in the general elections of October 9.

“I hope for excellent collaboration [with the new parliament]. As you know very well, in addition to the Frelimo party, we also have Podemos, and we will have Renamo and the MDM… All these parties or parliamentary groups represent the aspirations of Mozambicans. That is why it is very important to have an open, frank debate within this body,” the president-elect said.

Access to the Mozambican parliament in Maputo was severely restricted this morning, with several barricades by police and military personnel, hours before the inauguration of the deputies elected to the 10th legislature.

The capital woke up deserted, with practically no transport functioning and with several roads surrounding the parliament, on Avenida 24 de Julho, blocked with a strong police and military presence.

READ: CIP Mozambique Elections: MDM and Renamo will boycott the investiture

The Assembly of the Republic of Mozambique swore in the deputies elected to the 10th legislature this Monday, but two of the parties, Renamo and MDM, had already announced a boycott of the ceremony, contesting the electoral process, on a day when new protests are called across the country.

“The Renamo party understands that this ceremony is devoid of any solemn value and therefore constitutes a social outrage and disrespect for the will of Mozambicans, and therefore will not be part of this inauguration,” said the spokesperson for the largest opposition party, Marcial Macome, on Sunday, on the sidelines of the meeting of the national political committee of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo).

“We hope that in the coming days this calm and serene atmosphere that we are experiencing in our country’s capital, Mozambique, can continue, and that conditions can be created for an event like the one taking place today,” said Chapo, who will be sworn into office on Wednesday.

36 MPs boycott of the inauguration

The 250 MPs elected to the 10th Legislature of the Assembly of the Republic, including the 28 from Renamo and eight from the MDM who have announced that they will not attend the ceremony in protest against the electoral process, have been called to take office this Monday, at 10:00 a.m. local time in a solemn ceremony overseen by the outgoing President of the Republic, Filipe Nyusi.

The process surrounding the general elections has been marked over the last two-and-a-half months by social tensions, demonstrations and strikes contesting the results that have already caused almost 300 deaths and more than 600 gunshot wounds.

The agenda for the solemn session of this Monday also includes the election of the President of the Assembly of the Republic for the new legislature, a position currently held by Esperança Bias.

The Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo, in power and which holds a majority in parliament, with 171 deputies) nominated former minister Margarida Talapa for that position. According to information from the general secretariat of the Assembly of the Republic, in addition to the former Minister of Labour and Social Security – who was dismissed from her previous duties on Thursday – the candidacies for deputy-parliament speakers – the parliament speaker is the second- highest-ranking figure of the Mozambican State – were also received: those of Carlos Tembe and Fernando Jone.

Both Tembe and Jone are making their debut as MPs for Podemos, a party that until now has been extra-parliamentary, and which supported Venâncio Mondlane’s presidential candidacy. It is now the largest opposition party with 43 MPs. Contrary to Venâncio Mondlane’s request, the party leadership had already said that its MPs will be sworn in.

On Saturday, Venâncio Mondlane called for three days of strikes in Mozambique, starting this Monday, and for “peaceful demonstrations” during the inauguration of MPs and the new Mozambican President on Wednesday, contesting the electoral process.

“These three days are crucial for our lives. We have to show that the people are in charge. Peaceful demonstrations. From 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. is enough, against the traitors of the people on Monday and against the thieves of the people on Wednesday,” he said.

Meanwhile, former President of Mozambique Joaquim Chissano acknowledged that “there are many things that are not right” in the country, indicating that the Mozambican parliament must contribute to the search for solutions to put an end to the post-electoral crisis.

“I think there is a lot to discuss, there are many things that are not right in the country, we all know that, so we need to find ways to find solutions. The entire debate should be about finding solutions, recrimination, not recrimination are tactics, but finding solutions”, said Chissano, in statements to the media on the sidelines of the inauguration of the 250 parliamentary deputies.