Maputo — Despite promises made a week ago by Afonso Dhlakama, leader of Mozambique's main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, there is still no sign of the long-awaited Renamo Congress.

Speaking on 3 July, in the northern district of Memba, Dhlakama declared that the Congress would be held "next week", even if only 70 people were present. "Next week" is this week and it is almost over, without the slightest hint of a Renamo Congress.

Nor is it at all clear how the number of Congress delegates, confidently put at 700 by Renamo national spokesperson Fernando Mazanga in early May, has now shrunk so much that Dhlakama would be content with just ten per cent of that number.

A senior Renamo official told AIM on Wednesday that the Congress would be held "within a few days". The delegates had already been elected. But when and where were these elections held ? They seem to have escaped the attention of the media altogether.

Contrary to AIM's source, Mazanga, quoted in Friday's issue of the independent daily "O Pais", put no date on the Congress, not even an approximate one. As for Dhlakama's promises in Memba, Mazanga said it had simply been impossible to carry them out.

Could a Congress conceivably be held sometime during the coming week? Only if the Renamo parliamentary group does not attend. For next week is the final week in the current sitting of the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, and the Renamo deputies are battling desperately for last minute amendments to the electoral legislation.

Meanwhile Renamo claims that it has completed its internal elections to choose candidates for the 28 October parliamentary elections. Whereas the lists of the candidates selected by the ruling Frelimo Party were made public immediately, the Renamo lists are still confidential.

Mazanga declared that the Renamo Election Office was checking the legitimacy of each of the candidates. Only after that task was completed would the lists be published.

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