Mozambique: Samora Machel Jr. distances himself from pretensions of new PODEMOS party

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Mozambique: Samora Machel Jr. distances himself from pretensions of new PODEMOS party

3:27 CAT | 14 May 2019

File photo: DW

There is a new party, the PODEMOS, and it was created by AJUDEM, the organisation which supported Samora Machel Junior in the 2018 local elections. PODEMOS considers having Samora Machel Junior as presidential candidate, but Samito says that he is from Frelimo.

ALSO READ; Mozambique: Ministry finally unblocks new political party formation ‘PODEMOS’ – Savana

PODEMOS was created by members of AJUDEM, an association linked to Frelimo. The internal discontent within the ruling party has boosted the creation of the new party in Mozambique, as revealed by Albino Forquilha, a member of PODEMOS:

“It comes from Frelimo’s bases and is the continuation of what happened in 2018 when the Frelimo bases decided to put someone who would be appropriate for the change within Frelimo and this purpose was not accepted, there was an anti-democratic process and the will of the bases did not prevail. What we did was to work so that, on the following year, we could establish a political party. ”

AJUDEM supported Samora Machel Júnior, a member of Frelimo, to run for the 2018 municipal elections for the municipality of Maputo. The pretension was, however, discarded through elements of a formal nature.

Is Samora Machel Junior an option to consider as the presidential candidate of PODEMOS? Albino Forquilha does not hesitate: “Yes, it is [an option]. Yes, it is.”

ALSO READ: The shadow of Samora Machel Jr. continues to unnerve and leads to detentions – Savana

Samito distances himself from PODEMOS

Samito, as the son of the first independent President of Mozambique is also known, faces a disciplinary process at Frelimo because he tried to run as an independent candidate and with the support of AJUDEM.

Mosambik Albino Forquilha — *Albino Forquilha, a member of PODEMOS*

A closure was expected on the subject at the Frelimo Central Committee meeting in early May, but this did not happen. Several analysis already believed that the Samito case would be put on hold, with the clear intention of stopping any possible electoral ambitions he might have had for this year.

We talked to him and asked: Should you be invited to be the PODEMOS presidential candidate this year, would you accept?

“How am I going to do something like this? I am from Frelimo and I am in Frelimo,” said Samora Machel Junior.

And do you think there are conditions within the Frelimo party [for you] to continue? “If there weren’t, I would have left,” he replies.

No alignment: Is there a card up its sleeve?

We are, then, facing antagonistic positions between Samora Machel Junior and his supporters. Is it a strategic move aimed at, for example, forcing changes in the ruling party?

Whatever the motivation in this whole story, the obvious, for political analyst Silvestre Baessa, is that Samito is not going to throw himself off the cliff: “We are talking about general elections, a big country, a great mobilisation capacity [needed] to cover this country and to run for elections. I do not think Samora Machel Junior, in case he were to join the race, would be interested in participating only. [Therefore,] I think he would need a [electoral] machine much better prepared to compete. ”

And Baessa also points out that “the best prepared machines to compete in elections this size are, besides Frelimo, in Renamo. It may be that the MDM has built some capacity, but that takes time. [The point is] I do not believe that this time, even with these internal supports, is enough to make the change to project him [Samito] as he intends to be projected in this process.”

Can one speak of a split in FRELIMO?

The members of PODEMOS are all dissidents of Frelimo and stand for, among other things, internal democracy in the new party, the clear separation of powers, the fight against corruption and the dignity of Mozambicans, recovering the values of the national liberation struggle.

Given the fragmentation in Frelimo and the Samito case, is it premature to speak of a split, in this case {would be] historical, in the only party that has ruled in Mozambique so far?

“It is premature. What we are going to have is a certain group of Frelimists who are not going to participate in this electoral process,” Baessa replies.

And the analyst says that “we must remember the following: Frelimo today is more than a party, I think Frelimo today is a machine that supports a national elite which, regardless of the differences they may have, what unites them is the fact that Frelimo remains in power. The only way for this elite to survive, in my view, is with Frelimo in power.”

Source: Deutsche Welle