Frelimo and MDM remove Manuel de Araújo from presidency of Quelimane City Council

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Frelimo and MDM remove Manuel de Araújo from presidency of Quelimane City Council

1:03 CAT | 23 Aug 2018

File photo: DW

This Wednesday morning (22.08) started agitated in Quelimane’s municipal assembly. An extraordinary session, with the support of members of Frelimo and the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), decided to remove Manuel de Araújo from the position of mayor of Quelimane, because he had defected to Renamo before the end of his mandate.

*Rijone Bombino, head of the Frelimo bench*

The decision was announced by the president of the Quelimane Municipal Assembly, Abel de Albuquerque, stating that the law supported such a conclusion.

Manuel de Araújo refused to accept the decision and said he would continue to serve as mayor. “We remain in office, and will continue to extract Quelimane from the hole we found it in, on its way to the good signs,” he said. (Quelimane is also known as ‘The City of the Good Signs’).

Members of the MDM, the party on whose ticket Manuel de Araújo was elected mayor in 2014, were satisfied with the decision. MDM whip in the Municipal Assembly File Salato said: “It will be up to the law to enforce what has been embodied.”

Frelimo members also welcome this decision.

“We in Frelimo have voted in favour because we approve of legality within the municipality. It’s not good that someone thinks they can simply jump from one party to another overnight. Otherwise the exercise of politics in Mozambique would become a picnic,” Frelimo whip Rijone Bombino said.

Acting Mayor should be nominated by MDM

During the session, Renamo supporters demonstrated outside the Quelimane Municipal Council building, which had a heavy police presence.

One of Renamo’s supporters told DW Africa that the MDM would suffer most as a result of the situation.

“Araújo ceasing functions while he remains the head of Renamo’s list, this is no problem. This is a major breakthrough for Renamo. He only left the presidency. The MDM is a child. If the MDM loses this municipality to Frelimo, they’ll get trampled, because they mocked Frelimo. When Frelimo takes this municipality, the MDM will suffer much more than Renamo,” he said.

RENAMO UnterstÃ¼tzer in Quelimane — *Renamo supporters of gathered around the Quelimane Municipal Council building*

The president of Quelimane Municipal Assembly, Abel de Albuquerque, said that the letter notifying the Council of Ministers of Manuel de Araújo’s dismissal would be sent on Wednesday (22.08).

“When we have an answer, I think the Cabinet will send a team to Quelimane to audit the municipality’s accounts, and probably for the inauguration of the acting municipal council president,” he said.

Albuquerque said he thought that the interim president would be the choice of the Mozambique Democratic Movement, even if only for a short time, with only one month and 20 days left before municipal elections take place country-wide.

Source: Deutsche Welle