Maputo, 26 Oct (AIM) – The leaders of Mozambique’s two main opposition parties, Ossufo Momade of Renamo and Lutero Simango, of the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), met in Maputo on Wednesday, in Momade’s office, and pledged to work together “to restore the electoral truth”.
Momade accused the ruling Frelimo Party of “liquidating democracy” and leading Mozambique into a dictatorship.
“We cannot allow democracy, which cost many lives, to be liquidated because of Frelimo’s ambitions”, he told reporters.
He insisted that Renamo has no intention of going back to war. “We want free, fair and transparent elections”, he said. “We don’t want to return to war”.
He claimed that Frelimo is always trying to push Renamo to take up arms again, but it would not succeed “because the struggle is now peaceful, political and is happening in the cities”.
“What we want is for Frelimo to retreat from these steps it is taking to liquidate democracy”, said Momade. “We want a democracy where those who are elected can govern. That’s why I am here with my counterpart, the President of the MDM, so that we can go forward together in this direction”.
Momade invited “all those who love peace to join us in respect for democracy. In democracy, those who win should govern, and those who lose should go into opposition”.
Momade promised that Renamo parliamentary deputies will end their boycott of the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic. Both Renamo and the MDM boycotted the opening session of the end-of-year sitting of the Assembly last week, in protest at what they describe as a “mega-fraud” in the municipal elections.
Even on Wednesday they refused to attend meetings of the Assembly’s working commissions that were discussing a new bill on religious freedom.
Simango said the opposition parties should form a coalition. They accepted the need to work together “to defend democracy, and the freedom of Mozambicans, and not allow the popular will to be manipulated, as is happening now”.
“We in the MDM are fully committed to democracy”, said Simango. “And democracy is built by respecting the will of the voters. Hence the results from the ballot box should be respected”.
Setting up a formal coalition may prove difficult, since there are sections of Renamo that loathe the MDM, particularly in the central city of Beira, which was once loyal to Renamo, but is now an MDM stronghold.
Last week, the Renamo candidate for Mayor of Beira, Geraldo de Carvalho, accused the MDM of working with Frelimo against Renamo. Neither Momade nor Simango mentioned Carvalho’s outburst.
Later, the leader of one of the minor opposition parties, New Democracy (ND), Salomao Muchanga, met separately with Momade and with Simango.
He said “we swapped impressions about these criminal groups that want to keep themselves in power, and who want to turn elections into a pretext for continuing the war”.
“We said no to these elections, and that truth and electoral justice should be restored”, declared Muchanga.
He added that the wave of demonstrations against the preliminary results would have to continue, until the true winners are acknowledged.
Details of the decisions taken at the meetings between Momade and Simango were not released to the press, and will only be divulged after they have been discussed inside the two parties.
(AIM)
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