Renamo “does not want war” but will abandon peace negotiations unless there is “reinstatement of electoral truth”

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Renamo “does not want war” but will abandon peace negotiations unless there is “reinstatement of electoral truth”

2:20 CAT | 23 Oct 2018

File photo: DW

In an interview with DW Africa, José Manteigas, the spokesman for Renamo, Mozambique’s largest opposition party, says that Renamo will contest the results of the local elections in the Constitutional Council.

So far, appeals by opposition parties against the provisional results of the October 10 municipal elections have been turned down. But the arguments of the courts – ranging from alleged delays in submitting appeals to official deliberations and result sheets (editais) not being attached to appeal documents – have been described by Renamo as “false apologies”.

The main opposition party does not want a return to war, but insists it will stop the peace talks with the Frelimo government if electoral truth is not reinstated, party spokesman José Manteigas said in an interview with DW Africa.

DW Africa: After the rejection of the appeals presented by Renamo, what are the next steps?

José Manteigas (JM): That was, let us say, the first instance. What Renamo will do is wait for the CNE results and, if there is no reinstatement of the electoral truth, we will appeal to the Constitutional Council. It is an inevitable step.

DW Africa: One of the justifications of the courts in turning down Renamo’s appeals is that the party complained late and not during voting. Do you confirm that this is what happened?

JM: It’s a false excuse, because, in fact, problems began to surface at polling stations. Almost all [polling station] presidents were instructed not to receive Renamo’s complaints at the assembly table. Several elements prevented us from actually bringing facts to the table. What weighed heavily was that we were prevented from making complaints at polling stations because the chairmen of the polling stations were instructed to refuse these complaints. We ended up without having enough evidence to prove what happened at the ballots.

JosÃ© Manteigas, Sprecher von RENAMO Nationalrat in Beira — *José Manteigas: “Renamo does not want war”*

DW Africa: Who has Renamo complained to, in those situations where complaints were refused?

JM: We made the complaint at the tables and went to court, because Renamo would not be so irresponsible to present the appeals extemporaneously in all municipalities. A party as organised as Renamo, as big, with so much political maturity, would not do that. So there is something wrong in the way this story is being told.

DW Africa: The final results of the local elections should be released two weeks after the vote. This means that in principle they will be known on Wednesday (25.10). If Renamo does not agree with the results, what do you intend to do?

JM: I have already said, we will appeal to the Constitutional Council. On the other hand, our national coordinator has already said publicly that, if there is no reinstatement of the electoral truth, [peace] negotiations will be interrupted. We would be moving into a situation of bad faith. We want a stable Mozambique, we want free, fair, transparent and credible elections and, therefore, we do not accept that electoral processes continuing to be manipulated. This defeats the popular will and the people want to be led by people directly and voluntary elected. We expect the Constitutional Council, for the first time, to demonstrate that it is free from political ties, and to make a serious and responsible decision to safeguard our sovereignty.

DW Africa: Would that mean returning to armed confrontations?

JM: Renamo does not want war. It never wanted war. If at any time the country was in military confrontation it was in self-defence because we were attacked. We never wanted to go to war, because that is not our goal. Our goal is to serve the Mozambican state well, our people.

DW Africa: So what would it mean to interrupt the peace negotiations process?

JM: It means expecting the highest magistrate in the nation to position himself as the guarantor of national stability. We are in a dilemma.

I also wanted to take this opportunity to tell DW that we had a very serious report from Murrupula, where seven bodies were found dead on Friday (19.10), and on Saturday (20.10) the local police buried the bodies in a common grave. There is no clarification and we are taking steps to complain about this to the national communication bodies and we are not getting collaboration. Renamo asks that what happened be investigated on the ground. According to the information we have, there were no autopsies or investigation.

ALSO READ: Seven bodies found in the woods in Murrupula

Source: Deutsche Welle