Renamo announces candidate for mayors of Maputo and Quelimane – Mozambique Elections

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Renamo announces candidate for mayors of Maputo and Quelimane – Mozambique Elections

10:47 CAT | 09 Jul 2023

Photo: Renamo Cidade de Maputo

Mozambique’s main opposition party, Renamo, has chosen prominent parliamentary deputy Venancio Mondlane as its candidate for Mayor of Maputo, in the municipal elections scheduled for 11 October, according to a report in Friday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Carta de Mocambique”.

The Renamo General Secretary, Clementina Bomba, presented Mondlane as the party’s choice at a conference held on Thursday in the Maputo urban district of KaMavota.

Mondlane declared that his election as candidate was the starting point for a ruthless struggle “because they (i.e. the ruling Frelimo Party) will come on top of us with everything they have”.

Also on Thursday, Renamo chose the incumbent, Manuel de Araujo, as its candidate for mayor of the central city of Quelimane. At a conference in Quelimane, Araujo won a majority of votes from those present.

Araujo thus defeated the two other pre-candidates – Latifo Xarifo, the current Renamo district political delegate in Quelimane, and Ines Martins, currently a parliamentary deputy and a former chairperson of the Renamo Women’s League.

Mondlane and Araujo are both former members of the second opposition party, the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), who defected to Renamo in 2019.

The number of parties who have registered with the National Elections Commission (CNE) to contest in the municipal elections has now risen to 12. But only one of them, Renamo, can be regarded as a serious contender. The other 11 are small organisations that have no representation in municipal or provincial assemblies, let alone in the national parliament, the Assembly of the Republic.

They are: