Mozambique: High turnout for local elections in Maputo - Lusa
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Mozambique’s main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, on Thursday accused the ruling Frelimo Party of using the defence and security forces to prevent Renamo candidates in the forthcoming municipal elections from undertaking political activities.
Addressing a Maputo press conference by a telephone link from Renamo’s military camp in the central district of Gorongosa, the party’s interim coordinator, Momade Ossufo claimed “the harassment and blackmail perpetrated by the defence and security forces have political motivations that seek to block Renamo”.
But the only Renamo member he named as facing such harassment was Venancio Mondlane, the Renamo mayoral candidate in Maputo, who had been prevented three times by the police from marching in the streets of the capital (on 18, 22 and 28 August).
For good measure, Ossufo added that Mondlane had recently been questioned by the Maputo branch of the public prosecutor’s office. He failed to mention that this is a libel case which has nothing to do with the elections, and the incident concerned happened well before Mondlane joined Renamo, when he was still the rapporteur of the parliamentary group of the second opposition party, the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM).
The only other Renamo candidate whom Ossufo mentioned by name was Manuel de Araujo, Renamo’s mayoral candidate in the central city of Quelimane. The only similarity between his case and that of Mondlane is that are both defectors from the MDM, and it is the MDM, rather than Frelimo, which has led the moves against them.
The MDM moved, successfully, for the National Elections Commission (CNE) to declare Mondlane ineligible to stand in the elections, and it was the MDM majority in the Quelimane Municipal Assembly that voted (together with the Frelimo minority) to sack Araujo as mayor.
Momade claimed that the government “sponsored” the Municipal Assembly’s move. In fact, the government agreed with Araujo that the Assembly does not have the power to sack the mayor. But the Council of Ministers (Cabinet) does have that power, and on Tuesday it removed Araujo from office, because the 1997 Law on the Administrative Supervision of Municipalities states that “office holders in municipalities shall lose their office if, after the elections, they join a party or list different from the one for which they presented themselves to the electorate”.
Araujo stood as the MDM candidate for mayor in a by-election in Quelimane in 2011 and won. In the nationwide municipal elections of 2013 he was re-elected, again on the MDM ticket. The MDM wanted him to stand for the party against this year – but he spurned this invitation and joined Renamo instead.
Even though he had betrayed Renamo before, defecting from Renamo to the MDM in 2009, Renamo welcomed Araujo back and announced that he was its mayoral candidate for Quelimane. But the 1997 law clearly states, not only that a mayor who switches party loses his office, but also that he cannot stand in the next round of municipal elections.
Momade’s claim of police harassment cannot possibly apply to Araujo – for when, last week, he claimed that he was receiving death threats, the police gave him two extra bodyguards.
Momade accused Frelimo of wanting to run without any opposition in the municipal elections. “How can we believe in the sincerity of a government which at the dialogue table promises peace, reconciliation and decentralisation but which, in its daily practice demonstrates such political intolerance”, he asked.
He urged Renamo members “not to let yourselves be intimidated by the manoeuvres and threats of the coalition between the police and Frelimo”.
But he also assured the public that Renamo intends to continue its dialogue with the government in order to achieve an effective peace.
Frelimo promptly denied Momade’s accusations. The party’s spokesperson, Caifadine Manasse, told reporters that Renamo is trying to manipulate public opinion, by making unfounded accusations against Frelimo.
He said that, through the media, Frelimo had followed the clash between Renamo and the MDM, but was not a party to that dispute. “This is a war between Renamo and the MDM. The MDM thought there was an illegality, and the CNE took a decision”, he said, referring to the CNE’s disqualification of Venancio Mondlane.
If Renamo thought its candidates were being harassed, he added, then it should take the matter up with the police.
“We don’t reply to questions that don’t concern Frelimo”, said Manasse. “If any party has a problem with the administrative or police authorities, then it should clarify the matter with them”.
“If Renamo spends its time accusing Frelimo, then it’s looking in the wrong direction”, he added. “Each situation should be clarified in the appropriate forum”.
The head of the press department in the General Command of the police, Claudio Langa, also denied the Renamo claims. “It’s not true that the police is obstructing the work of the political parties”, he said. “We suggest that they collaborate with the police authorities to avoid this type of situation”.
But it is undoubtedly true that the police did stop Mondlane and his supporters from marching in Maputo. This was justified by a local election official on the grounds that the official campaign for the municipal elections has not yet begun, and that campaign activities outside that period were “illegal”.
But Frelimo in Maputo has also been involved in obvious campaigning activities, introducing its mayoral candidate, Eneas Comiche, to the public, and there has been no police action against Frelimo.
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