Renamo national council will only meet next year

Maputo, 29 Nov (AIM) – Mozambique’s main parliamentary opposition party, Renamo, will not hold a meeting of its National Council until the Constitutional Council, the country’s highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law has delivered its verdict on the 9 October general elections.

At a Maputo press conference on Thursday, the head of the Renamo Jurisdicional Council, Arnaldo Chalaua, said the fate of the party’s leader, Ossufo Momade, would only be decided by the next Renamo Congress. It was a Renamo Congress held last May which re-elected Momade as the party’s President.

But it is the National Council that must set the date for the Congress, and Chalaua said the Council will not meet until the Constitutional Council has validated and proclaimed the result from the elections.

The National Elections Commission released the preliminary results, widely regarded as fraudulent, on 24 October. Since then, the Constitutional Council has been considering the results. The fact that it has taken so long suggests that the Council is divided.

There is no legal deadline for the Council to announce the final results. However, Council chairperson Lucia Ribeiro has suggested the date will be by 23 December. That would mean that the Renamo National Council could not meet before next year.

Within Renamo there are calls for the resignations of Momade and of the party’s General Secretary, Clementina Bomba, because of the party’s poor results in the October elections. Chalaua insisted that it would be premature to take any such decision before the Constitutional Council has announced its ruling.

He claimed that disagreements are to be expected within a democratic political party. “There is only unanimity of ideas in a house where there is dictatorship, and where people are not allowed to express themselves”, said Chalaua. “In Renamo, people speak freely”.

What could not be tolerated, he added, was violation of the party’s statutes. The demand for the immediate sacking of Momade could not be accepted, because “the year is not over yet and so the statutory deadline for the National Council to meet has not expired yet either”.

As for Renamo’s showing in the elections, Chalaua insisted that, even if Renamo had not actually won, it was at least in second position.

The preliminary results, however, suggest that Renamo came third, behind not only the ruling Frelimo Party, but also behind the Optimistic Party for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos).

Podemos supported the independent presidential candidate, Venancio Mondlane, who, according to the CNE, was runner-up with about 20 per cent of the vote. Momade took only five per cent of the presidential vote.

Chalaua’s remarks suggest that Renamo is trying to persuade the Constitutional Council to fix the results so that Renamo holds on to its current position of second most voted party.

It would be a bitter political and financial defeat if the number of Renamo members of parliament collapsed from the current 60 to just 20.
(AIM)
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