Maputo, 12 May (AIM) – As of Saturday, ten people had declared their intention of running for the presidency of Mozambique’s main opposition party, Renamo, at the party congress due to be held next Wednesday and Thursday.
The party’s current leader, Ossufo Momade, is standing for a second five year term of office. Momade was elected at the last Renamo congress, held in January 2019. His term expired on 17 January this year.
Among those hoping to dethrone him is Ivone Soares, the former head of the Renamo parliamentary group, and the niece of Afonso Dhlakama, who led Renamo from 1979 until his death from diabetes in 2018.
Dhlakama’s younger brother, Elias Dhlakama, who is a retired colonel in the armed forces, is also a candidate to replace Momade.
The other candidates are the former Renamo general secretary, Andre Magibire, two members of the Renamo Political Commission, Herminio Morais and Alfredo Magumisse, the head of the training department, Anselmo Victor, the chairperson of the party’s Tete Provincial Council, Juliano Picardo, and Pedro Murema, a member of the Renamo Maputo city provincial council.
The tenth candidate is Venancio Mondlane, who was the Renamo candidate for mayor of Maputo in last year’s municipal election. He became the best-known public face of Renamo when he led large, and mostly peaceful, demonstrations against the fraudulent results declared by the National Elections Commission (CNE).
But for Mondlane to stand in the inner-party election, the Congress itself must overrule the profile for candidates which states, for example, that only those who have been members of Renamo for at least 15 years can run for the presidency of the party.
If the Congress insists that only those who fit the profile can run, then Mondlane will be disqualified, since he only joined Renamo in 2018. Previously, he was a leading figure in the second opposition party, the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM).
About 700 delegates are expected at the Congress, which will be held in the municipality of Alto Molocue, in the central province of Zambezia.
It is almost certain that whoever is elected to lead Renamo will also become the party’s candidate in the presidential election scheduled for 9 October.
(AIM)
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