But will donors support it or continue to back Frelimo?

A dozen prominent academics and intellectuals with links both in Frelimo and to the opposition joined Wednesday in a "call on all parties and relevant political actors to convene a National Conference that unites all the political sensitivities of our social fabric so that together we can discuss how to overcome this post-election crisis in the spirit of ‘Making Mozambique a safe country for citizens’." The group includes Carlos Serra, Egna Sidumo, Elísio Macamo, José Jaime Macuane, Severino Ngoenha, and Tomás Vieira Mário.

The appeal notes that "The post-election crisis reinforces the need for reflection, seriousness and a renewed commitment to the founding ideal of our nation. This renewal is done by strengthening citizenship and, consequently, by widening the spaces for exercising citizenship. We register this concern with an urgent appeal to the need to (re)make Mozambique a safe country for citizenship."

The Manifesto and call for the national conference in English and the original Portuguese is on https://bit.ly/Moz-El-NatConf and a very good video (45Mb, Pt only) is on https://bit.ly/Moz-El-NatConf-video