Maputo — Mozambique's main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, has announced that it will hold conferences across the country in April, to select candidates for the country's third municipal elections, due to be held later this year.

The conferences will be held in all municipalities - but the problem that Renamo, like all other parties, faces is that it does yet know how many municipalities will exist by the time of the elections.

Currently Mozambique has 33 municipalities - all 23 urban areas classified as cities, and ten other towns, one in each province. If towns are to acquire municipal status in time for the elections, a law to that effect must be passed by the country's parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, at its next sitting, which begins on Monday.

Cited in Friday's issue of the daily "Noticias"', Renamo national spokesperson Fernando Mazanga said "the Frelimo government has always favoured gradualism in the creation of new municipalities, while we wanted all Mozambican cities and towns to have this status. We are waiting to know if there will be new municipalities or if we will only have the 33 that already exist".

Mazanga added that Renamo intends to run on its own, without the minor parties currently allied to it in the Renamo-Electoral Union coalition. This is despite the pleas of some of the minor parties, who know full well that they stand no change of winning any seats on their own, for the life span of the coalition to be extended.

Mazanga said the Electoral Union was set up in 1999 for the general elections of that year, and was then renewed in 2003 for the municipal elections of 2003 and the general elections of 2004. "Last year, when we were preparing our participation for the elections to provincial assemblies (subsequently postponed), the Renamo National Council decided that we should run alone in these elections. Everything indicates that that decision also covers the municipal elections", he added

He argued that a coalition agreement is not something permanent, but a strategic understanding, reached according to the needs of the parties concerned. "So if we find it necessary to enter a coalition again, there is nothing to stop us", Mazanga said.

He alleged that the objective of the Electoral Union was "to strengthen the small parties and allow them to grow".

"After all these years, maybe it is time we see whether they have grown up and can stand on their own feet", Mazanga added. "Besides, another way to join efforts is to create post-election coalitions, just like in the major European democracies".

In reality, the original coalition agreement was a quid pro quo, whereby Renamo gave leaders of the minor parties places on its lists that guaranteed them seats in the Assembly in exchange for them backing Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama in the presidential election.

Renamo's partners have almost no presence of their own and several have been riven by internal feuds. Only two minor parties are likely to win any municipal or parliamentary seats, and neither is a member of the Electoral Union. They are the Party for Peace, Democracy and Development (PDD) led by the former number two in Renamo, Raul Domingos, and PIMO (Independent Party of Mozambique), a disguised Islamic party, which already holds three seats in northern municipal assemblies.

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