Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
2 July 2009
Maputo — Mozambique's main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, on Wednesday delivered the nomination papers for its candidates in the October parliamentary and provincial elections to the National Elections Commission (CNE).
The candidates appear to have been handpicked by the Renamo leadership. There was no attempt to involve the party's rank and file in the selection. Indeed, the Renamo national congress, initially scheduled for the first week in June, was postponed sine die. It now seems most unlikely that such a meeting will be held before the elections.
Speaking to reporters after delivering the nomination papers, Renamo general secretary Ossufo Momade boasted that Renamo will win a majority of seats in the country's parliament, the Assembly of the Republic. Indeed, he thought Renamo could occupy all 250 seats - but "for the sake of democracy", it would allow the ruling Frelimo Party to take two seats.
Asked for his comments on this prediction, the Frelimo Secretary for Mobilisation and Propaganda, Edson Macuacua, laughed and told AIM that such statements "reveal the insignificance of the people who make them".
Such boasts "say absolutely nothing, and merely display a lack of political seriousness", he added.
Renamo has become the second party to deliver nomination papers for the parliamentary elections. The first was the Ecology Party.
Frelimo has not yet chosen its candidates. The election of parliamentary candidates began in Frelimo branches on 20 May, and culminates in provincial conferences this weekend. No date has yet been fixed for delivering the Frelimo nomination papers - but Macuacua said there would be no problem, since every Frelimo member standing in these inner-party elections has been told to have or her paperwork ready.
Macuacua pointed out that Renamo's apparent haste to deliver its nomination papers betrayed its lack of internal democracy. He believed that the list of Renamo candidates had simply been imposed from the top, "but we want to give legitimacy to our candidates by involving all segments of our party in choosing them".
As for the provincial elections, Frelimo chose its candidates in 2007, when it was still believed that those elections might be held in early 2008, and it sees no reason to change those lists.
The nomination papers for each and every Renamo candidate must now be scrutinized by the CNE, to ensure that all the candidates are eligible and have delivered all the required documents.
Presidential candidates are dealt with, not by the CNE, but by the Constitutional Council, and so far the only nomination papers delivered to the Council are those of the Frelimo candidate and current head of state, Armando Guebuza.
To date, six other candidates have declared their intention to stand. They are Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama, the mayor of Beira and head of the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), Daviz Simango, the leader of the Party for Peace, Democracy and Development (PDD), and former number two in Renamo, Raul Domingos, the leader of the Independent Party of Mozambique (PIMO), Yaqub Sibindy, and the head of the newly formed Union of Democrats of Mozambique (UDM), Jose Viana.
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