10 April 2008
Maputo — Mozambique's ruling Frelimo Party is sending brigades to work in all 11 provinces from Friday to next Wednesday, as part of its preparations for the local elections that will be held later this year.
According to Edson Macuacua, the Frelimo Central Committee Secretary for Mobilization and Propaganda, the brigades will visit the municipalities governed by Frelimo mayors to check on the implementation of the election manifestos on which they won office in 2003.
They will also see how far the local Frelimo committees are prepared for the coming elections, and will reactivate provincial and district election offices.
"The brigades will look at political, economic and social conditions at the grass roots", said Macuacua, "particularly at the revival of productive activities in the regions affected by the recent floods".
He stressed that Frelimo's "strategic objectives" is to win these elections so that it can continue playing its role as "servant of the Mozambican people and guide in the struggle against poverty".
He added that the list of Frelimo candidates will be announced shortly. The candidates will emerge from democratic elections inside the party, Macuacua said.
Currently there are 33 municipalities in Mozambique, and in the 2003 local elections Frelimo won in 28 of them, and the Renamo-Electoral Union opposition coalition in the remaining five.
The government has deposited a bill in the country's parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, which will create a further 10 municipalities, one per province. Renamo has questioned the criteria used to select the new municipalities claiming that the government is choosing areas where Frelimo enjoys a huge majority.
Macuacua dismissed such allegations, saying that that the criteria used for deciding which towns should become municipalities were based on demographic, economic and social factors. The Minister of State Administration, Lucas Chomera, stated in March that a key factor was the amount of tax revenue that a municipality could generate to sustain itself.
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