Maputo, 7 Aug (AIM) – Democratic Revolution (RD), a breakaway from Mozambique’s main opposition party, Renamo, has declared that it will continue using images of the first commander of Renamo, Andre Matsangaissa, and of his successor, Afonso Dhlakama, despite a ruling from the Constitutional Council, the country’s highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law, that it may not do so.
Renamo protested angrily when it found that RD was using portraits of Matsangaissa and Dhlakama on the election emblem that it plans to use for the municipal elections scheduled for 11 October.
The National Elections Commission (CNE) ruled against Renamo, arguing that there is no similarity between the emblems of Renamo and of the RD.
The CNE noted that the Renamo symbol consists of a partridge, ten yellow stars and three arrows, displayed horizontally from left to right; while the RD symbol is a blue square against a white background with a picture of Matsangaiça, in the lower left corner, and one of Dhlakama, in the upper right corner.
The decision was put to a vote, and the Frelimo majority on the CNE voted against the Renamo complaint. Renamo did not accept this, and so it lodged an appeal with the Constitutional Council.
The Council overturned the CNE’s decision. It believed that the question of the similarity or identity of symbols and acronyms “cannot be reduced only to the visual or graphic element”.
Instead, the substantive identity of the symbols should be analysed, taking into account their impact on the electorate, which should make a free and conscious choice, without confusion, when voting for candidates.
The Consitutional Council warned that the use of Renamo historical figures by the RD “may cause confusion among the electorate at the moment when they are expressing their wishes”. That is, it might easily lead voters “to vote by mistake for the candidates of the RD, when in fact they wanted to vote for Renamo”.
The Council gave the RD ten days to submit a new electoral emblem – but RD leader Vitano Singano, cited in Monday’s issue of the independent newsheet “Mediafax”, declared that he had no intention of obeying the Council’s ruling.
Singano said it is legitimate for the RD to use portraits of Matsangaissa and Dhlakama in its propaganda, because it also regards the two men as its founders. He claimed that the RD consists of “beloved sons and admirers of the founders of democracy”.
“Cost what it may, the RD will run in the elections with its current symbols”, said Singano, who claims that he was one of Dhlakama’s bodyguards prior to the latter’s death from diabetes in 2018.
Singano believed that the Council’s ruling is part of “a conspiracy” against the RD. He accused Renamo of entering an alliance with Frelimo and warned “even if we change the RD symbol, the harassment by Renamo will never end”.
Singano also made the extraordinary accusation that President Filipe Nyusi and Renamo leader Ossufo Momade “are as close as a finger and its nail”.
There can be no appeal against decisions of the Constututional Council. If the RD disobeys the Council’s ruling, and refuses to change its symbol, the only result will be that it is disqualified from standing in the municipal elections.
(AIM)
Pf/ (545)
