Maputo, 8 Aug (AIM) – Venancio Mondlane, the independent candidate in Mozambique’s presidential election, scheduled for 9 October, has called on all opposition parties to unite “to overthrow the regime and save Mozambique”.
Speaking at a demonstration in Maputo on Wednesday, in protest against the exclusion of the Democratic Alliance Coalition (CAD) from the parliamentary and provincial elections, Mondlane declared “it’s time that we strengthened ourselves and invited all the other parties competing in the elections so that we form a united front to overthrow this regime”,
Cited by the independent newsheet “Mediafax”, he described the regime of the ruling Frelimo Party as “the enemy of the Mozambican people, the enemy of democracy, of the multi-party system, and of all the parties which long to see Mozambique saved”.
CAD was backing Mondlane’s bid for the Presidency, but with its exclusion from the elections there is now no organized political force supporting him. Nonetheless, Mondlane describes himself as “the candidate of the people” and claims that his political programme “is the best to save Mozambique”.
“If all these parties that are competing really want to save this nation, then they should join our project”, Mondlane declared.
But the demonstration was very small, with only about 20 of his supporters who had accepted his urging to paint their hands black, to symbolize “the funeral of democracy and of justice”.
Nonetheless, Mondlane declared that this “is the first of many demonstrations that will happen until the fall of the killers of democracy, whose role is purely and simply to act against the will and sovereignty of the people”.
The call for unity among the parties fighting the elections is likely to fall on deaf ears, since only two of the opposition forces, Renamo and the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), are significant, and they both have their own presidential candidates, Ossufo Momade and Lutero Simango.
(AIM)
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