Maputo — Ossufo Momade, leader of Mozambique's main opposition party, Renamo, on Saturday began a "pre-campaign' tour of the country's provinces, prior to the presidential, parliamentary and provincial elections scheduled for 9 October.
Momade began his "pre-campaign' in Nhamatanda district, in the central province of Sofala, and from Sofala, he will move on to the adjacent province of Tete.
In Maputo on Friday, Renamo specialists and cadres discussed the general lines of the manifesto that the party will present to the electorate.
"Our commitment is to the welfare of the Mozambican people', declared a statement issued at the end of the meeting. "We are working hard so that we can respond to the longings of the population who, for almost half a century have been serving a minority elite which transformed itself into a second colonial power'.
Renamo also boasted that a group of eight minor parties have declared their support for Renamo and Momade in the forthcoming elections. It listed these parties as:
1. PUN (National Unity Party); 2. CDU (United Congress of Democrats); 3. UNAMO (Mozambique National Union); 4. PCM (Central Party of Mozambique); 5. PEMO (Ecological Party of Mozambique); 6. UDM (Union of Democrats of Mozambique); 7. PADELIMO (Democratic Liberal Party of Mozambique); 8. PPLM (Progressive Liberal Party of Mozambique).
Although Renamo says these groups have pledged their "unconditional' support, four of them (PUN, CDU, UNAMO, and UDM) are running their own slates of candidates in the parliamentary elections.
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All of these are political parties only in name. None of them have any representation in the provincial or municipal assemblies, let alone in the national parliament, the Assembly of the Republic. They do not have any publications, or even websites, and are invisible in the periods between elections.
Meanwhile, the independent candidate in the presidential election, Venancio Mondlane, on Saturday began a visit to Europe, which will take him to Portugal, Germany, Sweden, France and Britain.
Mondlane was once a senior figure in Renamo, and he had hoped to represent Renamo in the presidential election. But the Renamo leadership kept Mondlane out of the party congress in mid-May, and so he resigned. His presidential bid is backed by a grouping of six extra-parliamentary parties calling itself the Democratic Alliance Coalition (CAD).
A CAD statement said that Mondlane's European tour is intended to continue his "pre-campaign' and publicise to an international audience his plans for governance, should he be elected.
In Portugal, he expects to be received by President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
Rebelo de Sousa came under criticism when he received Daniel Chapo, the presidential candidate of the ruling Frelimo Party, when he visited Lisbon in late June. He reacted by promising that he would be willing to meet any other Mozambican presidential candidate who visited Portugal.
Mondlane could pick up some votes in this visit. Mozambicans living in Portugal and Germany are entitled to vote in presidential elections, provided they have registered as voters.
