Edil de Nacala-Porto e cabeça-de-lista da Renamo, Raul Novinte
Maputo, 26 Jul (AIM) – The former mayor of the northern Mozambican port city of Nacala, Raul Novinte, has said that he resigned from the main opposition party, Renamo, because he no longer saw himself reflected in the party.
He has followed Venancio Mondlane, who was the Renamo candidate for mayor of Maputo in last year’s municipal election, into the Democratic Alliance Coalition (CAD), which is a grouping of six small extra-parliamentary parties.
Cited by the German agency DW Africa, Novinte claimed that CAD is following the ideology of the late Renamo leader, Afonso Dhlakama “which has been despised and neglected by Renamo”.
He said it was “disgraceful” that the National Elections Commission (CNE) has excluded CAD from the provincial and provincial elections that will he held on 9 October. Novinte is the CAD candidate for governor of Nampula province.
“We are fighting to implement democracy, and when we are half way through the electoral process, along comes the National Elections Commission, and openly declares ‘we are a politicized elections commission’”, said Novinte.
He claimed there is no problem with the lists of CAD candidates rejected by the CNE – the real problem was that both Renamo and the ruling Frelimo Party, “know perfectly well that CAD, with Venancio Mondlane as its presidential candidate, has a great deal of appreciation and support”.
When Frelimo and Renamo saw the large crowd that greeted Mondlane on his recent visit to Nampula, “they were scared”, he claimed.
CAD has appealed against the CNE decision to the Constitutional Council, the country’s highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law. Novinte was optimistic that the Council will rule against the CNE, since the Council’s judges “cannot take a decision that shames and suffocates the Mozambican people”.
Novinte confirmed that the CAD leadership has called nationwide marches for this weekend to repudiate the CNE decision.
“CAD will march to repudiate an anti-democratic act, an act committed illegally, a ripping up of democracy in broad daylight”, he declared.
Regardless of the Constitutional Council’s ruling on the CAD appeal, Novinte plans to stay with CAD. When he was a Renamo member, “I felt I was not in the right place. Renamo was not what I was hoping for. Renamo has lost the stamp of a democratic party”.
(AIM)
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