Maputo — Mozambique's second largest opposition party announced on Saturday, as expected, that it will be running the mayor the central city of Beira, Albano Carige, for a second term of office at the municipal elections scheduled for 11 October.

Beira is currently the only municipality in the country run by the MDM. The founder of the party, Daviz Simango, was mayor of Beira from 2003 until his death in February 2021, when he was succeeded by Carige.

Speaking to reporters in Beira, after a meeting of the MDM political commission, the party's spokesperson, Judite Macuacua, said that candidates for all 65 municipalities had been submitted to the Commission for approval.

Clearly this was a lengthy procedure, for Macuacua only announced the names of a few of the MDM mayoral candidates.

In Maputo city, the MDM list is headed by Augusto Banzo, and in the neighbouring city of Matola, the mayoral candidate is Joao Pelembe, who was also the party's candidate at the previous local elections in 2018.

The academic and prominent MDM parliamentary deputy, Silverio Ronguane, heads the party's list for the newly created municipality of Matola-Rio, while in the western city of Tete, the mayoral candidate is Celestino Bento, was once a parliamentarian for the main opposition party, Renamo.

The names of other, less well-known mayoral candidates announced by Macuacua, were Manuel Ngale (Marracuene), Constantino Sevene (Inhambane), Daniel Macaringue (Vilankulo), Bruno Dramssone (Quelimane), and Machute Momad (Pemba).

The Political Commission continued its work on Sunday, when it hoped to conclude the approval of the lists of MDM candidates.