Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Thursday urged the country to reflect on the country’s electoral system, saying that it is costly.
Nyusi was speaking at the opening of the national conference of the Association of Veterans of the National Liberation Struggle (ACLLN), ahead of the ruling Frelimo party Central Committee scheduled for 5-6 April in Maputo.
According to Nyusi, the current format is very expensive and entails many costs for the country, as a lot of money is needed to support elections, in a scenario in which the country is going through difficulties in the midst of many challenges that, because of their relevance, cannot be ignored.
“Each election cycle in Mozambique is very expensive. These are funds that when spent rationally, could be used for other national interests,” he said, adding that “that’s why we’ve to reflect on our electoral model because the current one is unsustainable.” He thought that part of the money spent on elections could be used to properly equip the Defence and Security Forces (FDS), which are fighting an Islamist insurgency in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.
The forthcoming general and presidential elections will cost about $312.5 million. So far, government has disbursed $101.5 million.
Not to be outdone is Frelimo’s secretary-general, Roque Silva, said that there were citizens who were attacking his party leadership in order to weaken the party internal cohesion by publishing fake news in social media.
Silva warned Frelimo’s youth wing, Mozambique’s Youth Organisation (OJM), not to fall prey to such attacks.
Comment
Both Nyusi and Silva preferred to skirt the elephant in the room in order to dabble in fait divers. What Frelimo members and Mozambicans want to hear from Nyusi is how the process of his succession is being handled – barring any surprises, Nyusi is stepping down in January 2025, at the end of the constitutional second five-year term.
Consequently, Frelimo needs to let potential candidates to go through an internal contest that will elect the party’s standard-bearer in the forthcoming October 2024 general and presidential elections. However, Nyusi has managed to avoid the issue to the point of not including it in the Central Committee’s agenda.
A political scientist told Mozambique Insights that Nyusi’s comments were out of time and ill-timed, adding that the most pressing issue in the minds of many Mozambicans is the issue of succession.
If Nyusi was acting in good faith, he could have raised the issue of elections a while back. What is more, election registration has already begun. “It’s not his business to discuss whether the elections are expensive or cheap. He simply has to go, leaving all structural issues to be discussed by his successor.”
Furthermore, since the first multiparty elections in 1994, the tab has been picked by the international community. It therefore did not make any sense that Nyusi would be ruminating about the cost of elections, said the political scientist.
Unfortunately, Nyusi and Silva’s faits divers are not likely to now work on Frelimo members who want to see a swift resolution to the succession process.
Meanwhile, there are strange signals emanating from Nyusi’s supporters. In his Facebook page, Egídio Vaz, a historian and self-proclaimed communication strategist, glorified the Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for winning a third term, saying that “you can’t play with elections when there’s work to be done.”
Sometimes Nyusi will send messages via Vaz. “But it turns out that al-Sisi is building and not inaugurating taps,” was the terse comment made by a social media user, alluding to the fact that Nyusi has been crisscrossing the country inaugurating works of small dimension.
Meanwhile, any division or crisis within Frelimo should fall squarely on both Nyusi and Silva’s laps. It was their management of the party that has led to the current situation: an unrecognisable Frelimo, which has no recognisable ideology; has led the country to the brink of bankruptcy; has almost caused social conflict by not listening to doctors, nurses and other health professionals, as well as teachers, among others.
It is little wonder that Nyusi is currently a contested president, who might exit the political scene with no glory.
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