Frelimo general secretary resigns

Maputo, 5 May (AIM) – The General Secretary of Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo Party, Roque Silva, resigned on Sunday night, after he was heavily defeated in the election to become the Frelimo candidate in the presidential election scheduled for 9 October.

After an extraordinary meeting that had lasted for three days, a majority on the Frelimo Central Committee voted for the governor of the southern province of Inhambane, Daniel Chapo, to become the party’s presidential candidate.

According to a report on the independent television station STV, Chapo won 103 votes. Roque Silva came second with 77 votes. In third position was Frelimo parliamentarian Francisco Mucanheia, with 46 votes, while the speaker of the Mozambican parliament, Esperanca Bias, only picked up three votes.

A fifth candidate, Damiao Jose, a former spokesperson for the party, dropped out of the race before the vote was taken.

Since none of the candidates achieved over 50 per cent of the vote, there should now be a second round, between the two candidates with the most votes, Daniel Chapo and Roque Silva. But Silva’s resignation also entailed his resignation as a candidate, and so makes it doubtful whether a second round will in fact be held.

Silva’s resignation pre-empted a motion of censure against him moved by members of the Central Committee. His resignation also means that he loses his seat on the Frelimo Political Commission.

Daniel Chapo is the youngest presidential candidate Frelimo has ever fielded, and the first who was born after Mozambican independence in 1975. He is 46 years old, born in the central district of Inhaminga in 1977. He is thus too young to have taken any part in Mozambique’s struggle for independence from Portuguese colonial rule.

(AIM)

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