New general secretary for Frelimo

Maputo, 15 Feb (AIM) – The Central Committee of Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo Party, at a one-day extraordinary meeting in Maputo, on Friday elected 46 year old Chakil Aboobacar as the party’s new General Secretary.

Aboobakar was previously the Central Committee Secretary for Administration and Finance. He succeeds President Daniel Chapo as General Secretary.

There were no other candidates. Aboobakar won 221 votes (92 per cent of thr Central Committee members present). There were 18 blank ballots.

Contrary to initial expectations, the other members of the Secretariat were not elected on Friday. That election has been postponed to the next meeting of the Central Committee, scheduled for March.

Closing the meeting, Chapo declared that he wanted the political dialogue, currently restricted to parties represented in the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, to be expanded “to all social strata. We want all of Mozambican society to be in this debate concerning reforms. People understand each other by talking to each other”.

Chapo called for an end to violent protests, which have degenerated into looting and destruction. The riots, he said, “are destroying the social and economic fabric which we built over years, in both the public and private sectors”.

The political dialogue, he added, will cover reforms to the country’s deeply politicised electoral legislation, and decentralisation. Chapo regarded these reforms as necessary, in order “to recover social values, concerning morality and ethics”.

Young Mozambicans, he added, “need to know where we came from, where we are, and where we are going”.
(AIM)
Pf/ (256)