Maputo, 9 Apr (AIM) – Renamo, the largest opposition party in Mozambique, has scheduled it’s a meeting of its National Council for 14 April to discuss “relevant aspects” of the congress that will elect a new President for the party, who will almost certainly be the party’s candidate for the presidential elections scheduled for 9 October.
Renamo has been led by Ossufo Momade since the death of Afonso Dhlakama, who led the party from 1979 until his death from diabetes in May 2018.
Momade was elected President of Renamo at a Congress held in January 2019. Momade’s five year term of office expired on 17 January. Despite this, the party’s national spokesperson, José Manteigas, named Ossufo Momade as the Renamo candidate in the October election.
This caused angry disputes within Renamo, as opponents of Momade called for the overdue congress to be held. The discontent found a spokesperson in the shape of Venancio Mondlane, former political advisor to Momade, and Renamo candidate for Mayor of Maputo in last year’s municipal elections.
Mondlane submitted complaints against Momade to the Maputo City Law Court, in an attempt to force him to call a Renamo Congress. He also filed a criminal complaint to the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) against Momade for allegedly being involved in acts of aggression and torture against two of Mondlane’s young supporters, in the northern province of Nampula.
According to the spokesperson for the Renamo National Political Commission, Alfredo Magumisse, speaking to reporters on Monday, in Maputo, “the Political Commission, as is statutory, decided to hold a session of the National Council in Maputo on 14 April.”
Magumisse explained that under the slogan: “Renamo strong, reflecting on democracy and national reconciliation”, the Political Commission will prepare the necessary documentation to present to the National Council, which in turn will have to decide on the agenda for the party congress, scheduled for 15-16 May.
So far, four people have announced their intention of standing for the Presidency of Renamo at the congress. Momade will stand for a second term of office, and he is challenged by Venancio Mondlane, Col Elias Dhlakama, brother of the late Afonso Dhlakama and Juliano Picardo, a former Renamo Member of Parliament, and currently a political advisor to Momade. Dhlakama and Picardo both stood in the 2019 Congress, and were defeated by Momade.
With less than six months to go until the presidential, parliamentary and provincial elections, none of the three main national political forces, namely the ruling Frelimo party, Renamo, and the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), have yet announced their presidential candidate.
(AIM)
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