A group of supporters of Mozambican MP Venancio Mondlane of Renamo were forcibly expelled this Sunday by party security as they protested against an alleged attempt to exclude him from internal elections in the country’s main opposition party.
The youths were attempting to demonstrate outside the meeting room of the National Council of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) at the Gloria Hotel in Mozambique’s capital when party guards forcibly ejected them and tore up posters they were holding in support of candidate Venancio Mondlane.
“We want them to give opportunities to everyone in internal party elections. Now they want to introduce a requirement that candidates must have at least 15 years of active service, which doesn’t make sense because it’s not in the constitution,” he said. He. said Lusa Esmeralda Goncalves, one of the young protesters.
“We want Venancio Mondlane,” shouted Cloud Bernardo as she was attacked and chased away by Renamo guards in front of the press and senior party officials, including current president Ossufo Momade.
In response to Lusa at the door of the meeting room, a party representative downplayed the significance of the demonstration, believing that party bodies were meeting “to work.”
“It does not make sense. It is a body that meets and the members of the National Council who have the right to sit are present within. We’re not here for demonstrations. The party is not a person,” emphasized José Manteigas.
In an open letter published on Saturday, Renamo MP and former party candidate for the Maputo municipality in the last local elections, Venancio Mondlane, demanded that the Renamo National Council reject the proposed profile of a candidate for the presidency of the Mozambican party presented by the Political Commission. , believing that this violates the charter.
“The profile was not created in an objective and impartial manner, since it specifically aims to exclude a specific person, which violates the most elementary principles of normative technique, which assumes that norms must be general and abstract,” Venancio Mondlane said in an open statement. letter to members of the National Council of Renamo.
According to Venancio Mondlane, a member of the party since 2018, Renamo’s Political Commission has proposed, among a number of demands, that party members wishing to run for office must have at least 15 years of active experience.
Renamo has been led by Ossufo Momade since the death of Afonso Dhlakama in May 2018, but the mandate of the party’s organs expired on January 17.
Despite this, at the time party spokesman José Manteigas named Ossufo Momade as a candidate for the October general elections for the presidency of the republic.
Renamo’s leadership has been criticized both externally and internally, with former leader of the party’s armed wing Timos Makinze accusing Ossufo Momade of inaction in the face of alleged irregularities in local elections in Mozambique last October, allegedly in favor of the ruling party (Frelimo). and a negligent attitude towards the situation of recently demobilized party partisans.
Three activists have already announced that they intend to run for the Renamo leadership in the year when Mozambique holds general elections, including presidential elections: MP and former Maputo municipality candidate Venancio Mondlane, the brother of the party’s historical leader Elias Dhlakama and former MP Juliano Picardo.
Quelimane Mayor Manuel de Araujo said he was studying the possibility.
The Renamo National Council meeting precedes the elective congress of Mozambique’s main opposition party, scheduled for May 15 and 16.
On October 9, Mozambique will hold general elections, including presidential elections.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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