Maputo, 5 Mar (AIM) – Ossufo Momade, leader of Mozambique’s main opposition party, Renamo, has expressed his willingness to stand for a further term of office as party leader, as well as to run for President of the Republic in the general elections scheduled for 2024.
Interviewed by the Portuguese news agency Lusa in Lisbon on Saturday, Momade said he is winning to run against the ruling Frelimo Party, but added that the final decision will be taken at a Renamo Congress, to be held before the 2024 elections.
“I am available because I am still young, and I have the energy to lead Renamo”, said the 62 year old Momade. “But everything will depend on the party’s bodies. It’s good that we are going to have a Congress, the body that will decide on the Party’s candidate”.
Momade became leader of Renamo, after the death from diabetes in 2018 of Afonso Dhlakama, who had led the Party with an iron grip since 1979. He was confirmed as leader in an election held during a Renamo Congress in 2019.
Succeeding a charismatic leader such as Dhlakama “was a challenge”, admitted Momade. “Right now, we are working to unite the Renamo family, because the main goal of Renamo is to lead the country”.
Indeed, in his four years at the head of the party, he had tried “to unite the family after the death of our father” so that “we can advance together for the good of Mozambique”.
Looking towards the 2024 general elections, Momade declared that the current President, Filipe Nyusi, cannot stand for a third term of office, since this is banned under the Mozambican constitution.
“What I have to do is defend the Constitution of the Republic”, stressed the Renamo leader. “Any President must stand for two terms of office at most”.
Momade noted that Nyusi’s predecessors, Joaquim Chissano and Armando Guebuza, had only stood in two presidential election, “So why should this one run for three terms?”
There has been a great deal of speculation and chatter about a third term for Nyusi, but Nyusi himself has made no comment on the matter. For Nyusi to run for a third term, the Constitution must be amended.
Momade also blamed Frelimo for the delay in concluding the Demobilisation, Disarmament and Reintegration (DDR) of members of the Renamo militia. The DDR should have been finished in December, but Renamo has refused to close down its final military base, in the central province of Sofala, on the grounds that no pensions have been granted to former Renamo guerrillas.
“We’ve done as much as we can”, claimed Momade. “We have already demoblised 15 bases and 90 per cent of our fighters have gone home. Now we are demanding that they comply with what they promised the fighters”.
He warned of the “social risks” of many former soldiers left without adequate forms of subsistence.
“Promises were made”, Momade claimed. “What is missing is to keep those promises, and that is the responsibility of the government and of the international community”.
Renamo has repeatedly claimed that pensions for their demobilized fighters were promised in the peace agreement signed between Nyusi and Momade in August 2019. Nyusi has denied that the agreement covered pensions, and, since the agreement has never been published, it is hard to say who is telling the truth.
(AIM)
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