Maputo, 31 Aug (AIM) – PODEMOS (Optimistic Party for the Development of Mozambique), which is supporting Venancio Mondlane, the independent candidate in the 9 October presidential elections, says that it has faced logistical problems in the first week of the election campaign.
Cited in Friday’s issue of the independent paper “O Pais”, the party chairperson, Albino Forquilha, said “so far the election campaign is going reasonably well, but the logistical conditions are a serious problem”.
Nonetheless, he hoped that these problems will be solved in the near future, allowing PODEMOS to extend its campaigning to more districts and administrative posts.
He was speaking after a two day visit to South Africa, where he had been in contact with the Democratic Alliance (DA). The DA used to be the main opposition party in the South African parliament, but now it is part of the coalition government headed by the African National Congress (ANC).
Forquilha hoped that the DA would be able to support PODEMOS in the current election campaign. “We have a partnership with the Democratic Alliance”, he said. There were also friendly contacts with mining companies, and Forquilha hoped that they would also provide support.
He said the PODEMOS delegation also held talks with South African civil society organisations.
“This was an intensive socio-political interaction with organisations which are interested in working with us”, Forquilha said. “We briefed them about what is happening and our expectations as a party and as a country”.
Venancio Mondlane himself also returned from South Africa, and flew straight to Quelimane, capital of the central province of Zambezia. There he received a warm welcome from the Mayor of Quelimane, Manuel de Araujo, even though he is a political rival.
Last year, Mondlane and Araujo worked together to denounce the fraudulent results in the municipal elections announced by the National Elections Commission (CNE). But while Mondlane opted to resign from Renamo and run in this year’s elections as an independent, Araujo has remained in Renamo and is the Renamo candidate for governor of Zambezia province.
Mondlane showed that, despite his change in party affiliation, he has lost none of his power to attract enormous crowd, leading a march of many thousands of supporters from Quelimane airport to the centre of the city.
(AIM)
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