Maputo, 7 May (AIM) – Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo Party on Monday registered with the National Elections Commission (CNE) to take part in the presidential, parliamentary and provincial elections scheduled for 9 October.
The Frelimo national election agent, Foreign Minister Veronica Macamo, delivered the party’s registration papers to the CNE, just 24 hours before the deadline.
Macamo explained that it had left its registration almost to the last moment because it had prioritized the selection of its presidential candidate. A meeting of the Frelimo Central Committee, held from Friday until Sunday, culminated in the election of the governor of the southern province of Inhambane, Daniel Chapo, as the party’s presidential candidate.
Speaking to reporters at the CNE headquarters, Macamo said the Central Committee meeting served not only to choose “the best candidate”, but also to keep Frelimo “more united and cohesive, with the sole purpose of always being the best choice for Mozambicans during elections”.
She said Frelimo remains united despite the resignation of its general secretary, Roque Silva, after Chapo had defeated him in the election of the presidential candidate. She declined to speculate as to who might replace Silva or when.
Two small parties also registered on Monday. One, Nova Democracia (ND – New Democracy) did surprisingly well in last year’s municipal elections, becoming the main opposition in Gurue municipality, in the central province of Zambezia.
The PDD (Party for Peace, Development and Democracy) is a breakaway from the main opposition party, Renamo, founded by Raul Domingos, the man who led the Renamo team that negotiated the 1990 peace agreement with the government.
But the PDD has now shriveled into an insignificant group, with no representation in any municipal or provincial assembly.
The CNE says that 39 political parties have registered to participate in the October elections. But the only serious organisations among them are the three parties represented in parliament (Frelimo, Renamo and the Mozambique Democratic Movement, MDM), and possibly Nova Democracia.
All the others are tiny groups which only appear at election times, in an attempt to drain money from the state budget. None of those that competed in the last general elections, in 2019, took even as much as one per cent of the vote.
(AIM)
Pf/ (427)
