Maputo — As in all of Mozambique's previous multi- party elections, the country's main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, is preparing for this year's municipal elections by shouting "Fraud ! Fraud !" months in advance.
Interviewed in the weekly paper "Zambeze", Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama claimed that he had won the two presidential elections (in 1994 and 1999) but had been deprived of victory by fraud.
This is despite the fact that the then UN Special Representative in Mozambique, Aldo Ajello, described the 1994 elections as "the best ever held in Africa", and that in 1999 Renamo's own projections conceded victory to Frelimo.
"For me, the most important thing is to avoid fraud", declared Dhlakama, "because we have always had problems of fraud.
I was always the person with most votes. If today we could verify the computers of 1994, and particularly of 1999, we would see that I always won a majority. I would be governing the country.
There's no doubt about it".
"My problem is not whether my opponent is strong or weak", he continued. "My problem is the fraud that Frelimo always uses to achieve more votes than us".
The total absence of any aggressive or probing questions by the "Zambeze" interviewers allowed Dhlakama to get away with the extraordinary claim that Frelimo "was never able to extract the results from the computers to show either the Mozambicans or the international community".
Publishing election results is not the responsibility of Frelimo, but of the National Elections Commission (CNE), and the electoral branch of the civil service, the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE). Renamo appointed members to both these bodies in 1994 and 1999.
Far from the results lying mysteriously in the computers, they were published, right down to polling station level. STAE issued a very thick book containing all the 1994 results, and issued a CD-ROM doing the same for the 1999 results. From this CD-ROM one can extract the results from each polling station.
Renamo boycotted the ceremony at which STAE presented the CD-ROM.
"The people are fed up", declared Dhlakama. If there was fraud in the local elections, "They will revolt, and that will be the end of democracy in Mozambique and peace will finish".
Dhlakama made his habitual claim that, if there was any violence, this would not be the fault of Renamo, but would be a spontaneous popular uprising. "Renamo has already calmed the people down a lot, and on several occasions", he said. "Renamo cannot go around delaying the will of the entire people. I never saw a leader on the African continent, and not even in Europe, holding back millions of people who want justice".
Dhlakama claimed that Renamo would win between 18 and 20 of the 33 municipalities. He denied rumours that Renamo would not bother to stand in Maputo. "We are going to stand and we are going to win in Maputo", he boasted. That seems impossible - in the 1999 general elections, Frelimo won 86 per cent of the vote in Maputo.
Dhlakama also insulted the new chairperson of the CNE, Rev Arao Lisuri, and the Christian Council of Mozambique (CCM) which Litsuri chairs. He claimed that Frelimo had put pressure on the CCM to present Litsuri as a candidate for the post.
"Frelimo gave orders directly to the CCM to present its chairperson as a candidate", he claimed.
But according to a letter from the Anglican bishop of the Libombos diocese, Dinis Sengulane, published in last week's issue of "Zambeze", the CCM had chosen Litsuri as its candidate on 25 November, before the country's parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, had elected its 18 members of the CNE (10 nominated by Frelimo and eight by Renamo).
"The CCM received no suggestion, much less pressure, from Frelimo to submit any name", stressed Sengulane.
So is Dhlakama accusing the bishop of lying ? And do "Zambeze" reporters not bother to read their own paper before embarking on sycophantic interviews with politicians ?
