Mondlane attacks PODEMOS leader

Maputo, 6 Jan (AIM) – Mozambique’s exiled presidential candidate, Venancio Mondlane, on Sunday accused Albano Forquilha, the leader of the Optimistic Party for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos), of violating the pre-election agreement they had reached last year.

It is difficult to judge this accusation, since the agreement between Mondlane and Podemos has never been published.

Mondlane claimed that Forquilha had made a series of statements that contradicted the pre-election agreement. Since these statements violated the agreement, they were “null and void”.

The main disagreement is over whether those members of Podemos elected to the new parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, should take their seats or boycott the incoming legislature.

Much to Mondlane’s annoyance, Forquilha has said that the 47 Podemos members elected to parliament should take their seats when the Assembly opens on 13 January.

Mondlane and his hardline supporters believe this is some kind of treason. Mondlane’s legal advisor, Dinis Tivane, declared that Forquilha’s position is “a betrayal of the people”.

Furthermore, according to the Podemos parallel count of the election results, Podemos won, not 47, but 138 seats – an absolute majority – in the new parliament. Why should Podemos settle for just 47 seats?

This would be a strong argument, if it could be proved that Podemos did indeed win such a crushing victory. But Podemos has never published any of the polling station results sheets (“editais”) which could prove its claims. Neither has the Constitutional Council which proclaimed Frelimo the winner. No results sheets have been published by any of the contending parties.

The question of whether to boycott the Assembly is not new: in past elections, there were heated discussions as to whether Renamo, then the largest opposition party, should take its seats.

There is a lot of money at stake – since all deputies draw a wage which is, by Mozambican standards, high, and parties represented in the assembly receive a large state subsidy. The leader of the largest opposition party – now Forquilha – is automatically a member of the Council of State, a body that advises the President of the Republic.

The main political argument against a boycott is that, without opposition members in the chamber, there will be nobody to ask the government awkward questions in parliament, and nobody outside of Frelimo to sit on the various parliamentary commissions.

Any deputy who does not take his or her seat will eventually lose it. Deputies who are not present at the official opening on 13 January must present themselves within the first four sittings of the new assembly.

Although the deputies stood on a political party list, they are under no obligation to obey party decisions. If an elected deputy chooses to take up his seat in parliament, there is nothing his party can do to stop him. Pre-election agreements, such as that between Mondlane and Podemos, have no force in law.
(AIM)
Pf/ (482)