Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
14 October 2009
Gondola — The election campaign of the opposition Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) in Gondola district, in the central province of Manica, has ground to a halt amid demands for the replacement of the current MDM district delegate.
His opponents say that the current delegate, Domingos Kombo, has disappeared from the MDM office, and that there is a grass roots movement to replace him.
However, Kombo told reporters he known nothing about any discontent within the Gondola branch of the party, and claims the election campaign is continuing normally.
"What I know is that the MDM is doing door to door canvassing", he said. "My absence from the delegation has to do with urgent family matters that I have to solve".
Kombo added that he would not object to being replaced as a delegate. "What most interests me is that I continue to be a member of the MDM", he said.
Kombo's rival, Rodeci Nhangolo, claims that he was he who set up the MDM in Gondola, and a final decision on whether he will take over from Kombo will be taken at a meeting on Friday. That meeting, he said, was postponed because of Kombo's absence.
The MDM leader and presidential candidate, Daviz Simango, passed through Gondola last week and told the MDM branch that it should concentrate on canvassing, with the occasional meeting and parade. But Nhangolo claims that the members are so disillusioned with Kombo that nothing at all is happening.
"Kombo is lying to the press when he says that the MDM is canvassing door to door in the 7th April and Josina Machel neighbourhoods in Gondola town, when in reality it isn't doing anything", said Nhangolo. "I made a point of going to these places and found there was nothing there. Everything said about the campaign in this district is a lie".
Nhangolo alleged that, because of his unpopularity, Kombo has been unable to recruit enough MDM polling station monitors to cover the entire district. He said that to date the MDM only has 115 monitors - enough to cover Gondola town but nowhere else in the district.
This is an exaggeration. Gondola district has 153 polling stations, of which the town accounts for only 36. Thus Kombo's recruits could cover most of the district's polling statons.
Nhangolo claimed "even my friends in Frelimo ask me "what's going on with your MDM, we don't see anything", and I reply that in my party people have place their own interests above those of the organisation".
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