Frelimo central committee will meet in April

Maputo, 27 Feb (AIM) – The Political Commission of Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo Party on Monday announced that the next meeting of the party’s Central Committee will be held in Maputo on 5-6 April.

It will almost certainly be this meeting that decides on the Frelimo candidate for the presidential election scheduled for 9 October. The Party’s statutes state that it is the Central Committee which elects the candidate.

So far, nobody has announced their intention of becoming that candidate, and so there is no short list.

The Central Committee meeting was originally scheduled for the second half of March. The Frelimo spokesperson, Ludmila Maguni, told reporters the Political Commission postponed the meeting into April to avoid clashing with the Christian celebrations of Easter. Easter Sunday will fall on 31 March.

Asked if any candidates have yet been indicated for the presidential election, Maguni said the matter was not even discussed by the Political Commission.

She claimed that the main items on the agenda of the April Central Committee meeting will be reports from the Political Commission, from the Frelimo disciplinary body, the Verification Committee, and from the Central Office preparing Frelimo’s participation in the general elections.

Maguni added that the Political Commission has appointed new leaderships for the brigades that will assist the party in the provinces in the run-up to the October elections.

The heads of the brigades are as follows:

Niassa – Filipe Paunde (former Frelimo General Secretary);

Cabo Delgado – Amelia Muendane (head of the Mozambique Tax Authority);

Nampula – Fernando Faustino (general secretary of the Association of Veterans of the National Liberation Struggle, ACLLN) and Sergio Pantie (head of the Frelimo parliamentary group);

Zambezia – Aires Ali (former prime minister);

Sofala – Eneas Comiche (former mayor of Maputo);

Manica – Esperanca Bias (speaker of the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic);

Tete – Damiao Jose (member of the Political Commission);

Inhambane – Celso Correia (Minister of Agriculture);

Gaza – Margarida Talapa (Minister of Labour);

Maputo province – Veronica Macamo (Foreign Minister) and Tomas Salomao (former finance minister)

Maputo city – Francisco Mucanheia (senior parliamentary deputy)

Diaspora – Alcinda de Abreu (former foreign minister, and current adviser to the President)

(AIM)

Pf/ (360)