Renamo, Mozambique’s main opposition party, won crucial races in key municipalities in the October 2023 municipal elections, but the electoral bodies acted in unison to thwart the will of the people.
Renamo claimed to have won in 15 municipalities and only got four back after the rigged litigation process.
The Constitutional Council, which doubles up as an electoral court during elections, handed the ruling Frelimo party crucial wins in Maputo city, Matola, and Nampula, meaning that it rubber-stamped decisions made earlier by the Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE) and the National Election Commission (CNE), even when the parallel count showed that Renamo had won in such cities.
Meanwhile, Venâncio Mondlane, who had headed Renamo’s list and thus a mayoral candidate, felt cheated and took to the streets for weeks in a vain attempt to pressure the electoral bodies into granting him his victory.
Mondlane also publicly criticised Renamo leader Ossufo Momade for his apparent lack of interest in supporting him in his legal and political battles against the rigging machine. Thus, Mondlane attempted to unseat Momade at Renamo’s Congress, and disqualified from challenging Momade.
He subsequently announced he would run as an independent presidential candidate, supported in the parliamentary elections by the Democratic Alliance Coalition (CAD). However, CAD was eventually excluded from participating in the parliamentary and provincial elections by the CNE, once again with the backing of the Constitutional Court
After this setback, Mondlane formed another alliance with PODEMOS (Optimistic Party for the Development of Mozambique) set up by Frelimo dissidents – in Portuguese, the acronym PODEMOS means “We Can”.
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At the time, observers claimed that Momade might have mimicked the late Afonso Dhlakama who it is said was paid $4 million, in 1999, in exchange for his acceptance of the election results, after he had said he had won them. Consequently, the accusation was that Momade negotiated the municipalities in exchange for either in cash or in kind, or both.
It did not help that months later President Filipe Nyusi appointed one of Momade’s advisor and member of parliament, Eduardo Namburete, Mozambican ambassador to Algeria.
And if there were any doubts that Momade negotiated away the municipalities, especially the crown jewel of them all, Maputo, he seemed to confirm the rumous. Speaking in early September, in the northern Cabo Delgado province, Momade said: “When we go to the elections, they [referring to Frelimo] provoke frauds, and this time, in this year of 2024, if they provoke fraud, if they are not going to make an agreement with me, they will have to make an agreement with the Mozambican population,” adding that “I am not going to accept fraud, because we were not born to be in opposition, we also want to govern”.
Not to be outdone, Nyusi told a meeting in Vilankulo, in the southern province of Inhambane, that “we negotiated Vilankulo, but no more. Inhambane is not going to negotiate power”. Vilankulo is one of the municipality in which the electoral bodies had given a victory to Frelimo while the evidence pointed the contrary. However, the Constitutional Council eventually granted Renamo a win.
The revelation will vindicate Mondlane’s belief that he was robbed of victory in Maputo city and will not help Renamo’s chances of dislodging Frelimo from power. In Maputo, Renamo vote canvassers have been derided by voters, who say they want nothing to do with their party.
Meanwhile, Mondlane has proven to be a formidable foe for Frelimo and Renamo. He has a large following on social media, especially on Facebook and YouTube; he also draws large crowds everywhere his campaign passes, quashing the notion that he is just an urban phenomenon with no national reach.
Some Frelimo old heads have warned against complacency. João Salomão, a former Public Works minister, told a television network recently that Frelimo should pay close attention to Mondlane’s campaign.
Also Mondlane’s campaign has been accused of disinformation, going as far as associating his surname with the founder of the nation, Eduardo Mondlane, and also of using surrogates to publish fake testimonials allegedly from some of Frelimo’s historic figures, notably former President Joaquim Chissano and Graça Machel, in which they supposedly they praise him.
As for Renamo, the party seems not to have forgiven him for using it as his launchpad for his presidential ambitions. Perhaps what is more annoying for Renamo is that although there is no poll out, Mondlane appears to be more popular than Its leader, Ossufo Momade, thus posing a great risk of supplanting him as the leader of the opposition – the position comes with a sizable financial windfall from the state budget.
Renamo’s tactics have been to slander Mondlane and to use the legal system to lodge criminal complaints against him, especially concerning his alleged mismanagement of money amassed during his stint as Momade’s adviser.
Meanwhile, the Attorney-General’s Office (PGR) has leveled accusations against him for what it considers as “insults” to Nyusi. Interestingly, Renamo has resorted to also using what would be an “insult”, according to the PGR’s logic, but no such accusations have been made against the opposition party.
With less than two weeks before the general election, attacks on Mondlane by Frelimo and Renamo are likely to increase.
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