Mozambique: Renamo urges Constitutional Council to rule elections null and void – AIM repor

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Mozambique: Renamo urges Constitutional Council to rule elections null and void – AIM repor

11:32 CAT | 15 Nov 2019

Photo: Sala da Paz

Ossufo Momade, the leader of Mozambique’s main opposition party, Renamo, has urged the Constitutional Council, the country’s highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law, not to validate the results of the general and provincial elections held on 15 October, reports the independent television station STV.

Speaking on Tuesday at a rally in Pemba, capital of the northern province of Cabo Delgado, Momade said that “if they (the Constitutional Council judges) want to save Mozambique, these elections should be declared null and void”.

He urged the Council to take heed of Renamo’s appeal against the election results and “to respect the will of the people, otherwise it risks creating conflicts for the future”.

Momade promised that Renamo will not go back to war. In a rare implicit criticism of his predecessor, the late Afonso Dhlakama, he said Renamo will not repeat “the mistakes of the past when, after the announcement of the election results, Renamo took refuge in the bush, letting Frelimo govern the country without any legitimacy”.

“We don’t want war”, he declared. “But we are not afraid of war. There will be no more war. But we are not going to allow a handful of individuals to alter the will of the people”.

He said Renamo planned to confront Frelimo. “This time Frelimo will not govern, because we will not allow it to”, he pledged. He did not say how he planned to carry out this promise.

Momade said he is touring the country, and plans to visit all the provinces, with the message that in reality Renamo won the elections, and will govern Mozambique in the coming period. “This time we’ve had enough of Frelimo’s games”, he declared.

He also denied that Renamo had anything to do with the recent ambushes against vehicles travelling along the main roads through the central provinces of Manica and Sofala. He blamed the dissident group calling itself the “Renamo Military Junta”, and led by Mariano Nhongo.

“The group that is shooting is not linked to Renamo”, he said. “We respect what we signed on 6 August” (referring to the General Peace Agreement he and President Filipe Nyusi had signed).

“We keep our word”, he continued. “We are respecting the agreement in letter and in spirit. They are provoking us, because they want to push us into war while they continue to steal”.

Momade claimed the government “is preparing guns to kill the people” in the event of any demonstrations against the election results.

“But we shall not rest until the problem of the injustice practiced at the last elections is solved”, the Renamo leader declared.

Momade said Nyusi is to blame for the situation, “because it’s he who leads Frelimo and everything indicates he is the one who wants war. When he’s abroad, he always says he wants peace, peace, peace, but when he returns to the country, he does the opposite”.

Source: AIM