Renamo and MDM boycott new parliament

Maputo, 13 Jan (AIM) – Mozambique’s two established opposition parties, Renamo and the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), have announced that they are boycotting Monday’s opening session of the newly elected parliament, the Assembly of the Republic.

Addressing a Maputo press conference on Sunday, the Renamo spokesperson, Marcial Macome, announced that his party will not attend the meeting. It considered the session “a social outrage against the will of Mozambicans and so we will not attend the swearing-in ceremony”.

He recalled that Renamo leader Ossufo Momade had said that Renamo will not recognise any president emerging from fraudulent elections. Macome regarded as “merely administrative” the ruling of the Constitutional Council, which proclaimed Daniel Chapo, the Secretary-General of the ruling Frelimo Party, as the new President of the Republic.

It was an administrative decision, Macome said, which “does not reflect the will of the people”.

Renamo, he added, continues to believe that the best way forward would be to annul the general elections held on 9 October and organise new elections.

“What is required are transparent, free and fair elections, and not administrative elections”, he declared. Renamo “urges all Mozambicans to use all possible peaceful means to ensure that justice is restored”.

The MDM has also announced its intention to boycott the Monday ceremony. The MDM leadership has instructed the MDM’s elected deputies not to take their seats.

According to an MDM source, by not taking their seats, the deputies from the MDM would be expressing the illegitimacy of the fraudulent results.

There are 28 Renamo deputies and eight MDM deputies. Their absence does not affect the legality of Monday’s session. The quorum for the Assembly to meet validly is 126 (50 per cent of the deputies plus one). The ruling Frelimo Party, with its 171 deputies, can meet that quorum on its own.

The largest opposition party, Podemos (Optimistic Party for the Development of Mozambique), with 43 deputies, has announced that it will take its seats. This has earned Podemos, and particularly its leader, Albino Forquilha, a barrage of angry abuse on Mozambican social media.

Leading the abuse is former presidential candidate Venancio Mondlane, whom Podemos supported in his campaign for the Presidency. Despite Forquilha’s attempts to maintain cordial relations with Mondlane, the latter has denounced as “traitors” anyone who takes their seats in the new parliament.

There are no costs attached to boycotting the opening ceremony. Deputies who do not attend the ceremony have another 30 days in which to take the oath of office before they lose their seats.

Both the MDM and Renamo have made clear that they will eventually take the oath, but not in the blaze of publicity of the opening session.

Meanwhile the General Command of the Mozambican police (PRM) claims that it has detained former Renamo guerrillas who were preparing to sabotage the investiture of the deputies on Monday, and of the President-elect, Daniel Chapo, on Wednesday.

On Sunday, the spokesperson for the General Command, Orlando Mudumane, presented to reporters six supposed former guerrillas who had been detained in Marracuene district, about 30 kilometres north of Maputo.

Mudumane claimed they had been selected and paid by Venancio Mondlane to sabotage the investiture. But they were carrying no guns, and denied all the police accusations against them.

They said they were members of Podemos who were travelling to Maputo to greet Mondlane on his return to the country last Thursday morning.

One of them declared “I’m Agostinho Alberto, I’m from Morrumbala (in the central province of Zambezia), and I came to Maputo to receive Venancio Mondlane. I’m a member of Podemos”.

Alberto said he had received no money from Mondlane, but a member of Podemos had bought a bus ticket for him. When he was arrested, he was waiting for money to pay the return fare.

Charles Dalama said he was from Tete province and he too had come to join the welcome for Mondlane in Maputo. “They sent money for people to catch the bus, because it’s a long way”, he said. “We left on 7 January and arrived at the Maputo terminal on 9 January. Even then, we didn’t reach the airport, because it was raining”.

Asked if he was carrying a gun, Dalama said “if you look though our baggage, you will only find clothes”.

Carlos Ntchica has a real military background. He held the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in Renamo’s forces, and was demobilised in 1994. He said he used to be a member of Renamo, but because of Renamo’s internal problems, he decided to join Podemos.

“We don’t have guns. We just came here to receive Venancio”, he said. He said that when the police found they were not carrying anything illegal, they did not question them, but just beat them.

On the basis of this testimony, the six were not arrested for any crime, but merely because Podemos paid for their bus fares.
(AIM)
Pf/ (819)