Delegado distrital da Renamo no distrito de Murrupula, província de Nampula, Mário Joaquim, junta-se a Frelimo
Mulhaniua (Mozambique), 4 Sep (AIM) – Mario Joaquim, the political delegate of Mozambique’s main opposition party, Renamo, in Murrupula district in the northern province of Nampula, has defected to the ruling Frelimo Party.
His defection was announced at an election campaign event in the locality of Mulhaniua, where the Frelimo candidate for Nampula provincial governor, Eduardo Abdula, announced the party manifesto.
Joaquim’s wife, Essirda Samuel, and the Renamo secretary for mobilization in the district, joined him in the switch to Frelimo.
He said he had been highly active in Renamo, and had contributed to the election of Renamo candidates to the national parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, and to the Nampula provincial assembly. But he claimed that Renamo never recognized his work.
“They humiliated me in the party”, he claimed. “They beat me up, they took away the house I had built with my own money. I fell ill. Then I saw that the party, which I had worked so hard for, is worthless”.
Joaquim claimed that he has many followers in Murrupula who will now leave Renamo.
Eduard Abdula welcomed Joaquim into Frelimo. “We shall respect him and he will have the same treatment as anyone else”, he declared.
Defecting from one party to another is common in Mozambican politics, particularly at election periods.
(AIM)
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