Maputo, 4 May (AIM) – The Central Committee of Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo Party, meeting in extraordinary session in the southern city of Matola on Friday, failed to elect the party’s candidate for the presidential election scheduled for 9 October, although this was the only point on the agenda.
The party’s Political Commission submitted a short list of three “pre-candidates” – but members of the Central Committee wanted a longer list of names.
The meeting was interrupted and is due to resume at 10.00 on Saturday.
The three names proposed by the Political Commission are: Roque Silva, currently the Frelimo General Secretary, and a former Deputy Minister of State Administration; Damiao Jose, who is a member of the Political Commission, and a former spokesperson for Frelimo; and Daniel Chapo, the governor of the southern province of Inhambane.
The demand for a longer short list led to sharp debates during the meeting, which forced all decisions to Saturday.
Outside the meeting, prominent jurist and Central Committee member Teodoto Waty, told journalists that, after receiving the short list from the Political Commission, the Committee deemed it appropriate to add more names to the list, which Waty regarded as “an extension of inner-party democracy”.
“We said it would be convenient for more names to appear because, when more names are presented, it’s clear that there is more democracy”, he said.
Waty said there was an intensive discussion about the criteria for the Frelimo presidential candidate, concluding that the Frelimo candidate “should be a patriot who fights for Mozambique in all senses”.
Waty was confident that there would be no further delays, and that the Central Committee will certainly elect the candidate on Saturday.
This is the second time that the Central Committee has rejected a short list of pre-candidates presented by the Political Commission. In 2014, the short list consisted of the then Prime Minister Alberto Vaquina, former Interior Minister Jose Pacheco, and the then Defence Minister, Filipe Nyusi.
The Central Committee objected, and so two more names were added, Aires Ali and Luisa Diogo, both former prime ministers.
There were two rounds of voting. Vaquina, Pacheco and Ali were knocked out in the first round, and in the second round, Nyusi beat Luisa Diogo by 68 to 32 per cent.
(AIM)
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