from ARMANDO DOMINGOS in Maputo, Mozambique
Mozambique Bureau
MAPUTO, (CAJ News) – WITH the opposition parties divided and history in favour of the ruling party, the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO) is tipped to win next week’s general elections.
Polls are scheduled for October 9.
Four presidential aspirants have registered their participation ahead of the elections, to choose the fifth president.
Daniel Francisco Chapo (aged 47), candidate of the FRELIMO is one of them. He is the favourite to retain the win of the party, after his announcement as the next presidential candidate in place of the outgoing Felipe Nyusi.
The main opposition Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO) has stuck with the old guard, again fielding Ossufo Momade (63).
Others are Lutero Simango (64) of the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) and independent candidate, Venâncio Mondlane (50).
Mondlane recently quit RENAMO, citing undemocratic practices.
Prior to Chapo’s rise within the FRELIMO ranks, the Southern African nation boasted what many political scientists believed would be a formidable opposition coalition – the Democratic Alliance Coalition (CAD) – but again, due to divisions, the alliance lost its steam.
“On October 9, we want a 100 percent victory for the FRELIMO candidate and for the party,” Chapo said at a recent election campaign rally in the rural Gaza province.
It is RENAMO’s stronghold and in 2019, it won 81 of the 82 provincial seats here. There are 250 seats in the country’s National Assembly.
Momade, meanwhile, has raised vote rigging claims.
“I am not going to accept fraud, because we were not born to be in opposition, we also want to govern,” Momade said.
RENAMO has previously resorted to banditry against the FRELIMO government when it believes elections were rigged.
This was the hallmark of the party under the leadership of Afonso Dhlakama, who died a year before the last election.
That ought to be avoided as Mozambique’s 34,8 million population is besieged with a host of challenges such as the emergence of Al-Shabaab affiliated Ansar al-Sunna, also known as Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jamo, in the resources-rich Cabo Delgado in the north, bordering Tanzania.
Other challenges are rising unemployment and economic problems as well as climate change-induced floods and droughts.
For decades, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region has seen ruling parties govern uninterruptedly after independence.
These include the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) in Angola, Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) in Namibia and Chama Cha Mapinduzi (Tanzania).
Others are the African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa, which was forced to go into a coalition following its failure to secure the majority vote in May this year, and the Zimbabwean African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF).
FRELIMO has been at the helm since independence from Portugal in 1975.
A civil war with RENAMO ended in 1992, having started in 1977. The conflict left more than one million people dead.
– CAJ News