Dhlakama again threatens “parallel government”
MOZAMBIQUE – Afonso Dhlakama, leader of Mozambique’s main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, on Tuesday threatened once again that he will form “a parallel government”, if the ruling Frelimo Party refuses to form a coalition with him.
He was speaking by phone to the independent newsheet “Mediafax” from his home village of Mangunde, in the central province of Sofala, in the wake of the validation of the 15 October general election results by the Constitutional Council, the country’s highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law.
The Council confirmed that the Frelimo candidate, Filipe Nyusi, won the presidential election with 57 per cent of the vote. Dhlakama was the runner-up with 36.6 per cent.
In the parliamentary election Frelimo lost 47 seats but still has an overall majority. In the new parliament, there will be 144 deputies from Frelimo, 89 from Renamo and 17 from the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM).
Despite the results, Dhlakama insisted that a “caretaker government” should be formed, in which both Frelimo and Renamo would appoint ministers. “We shall govern together. The games have finished”, he declared.
“We let them govern in 2004, and in 2009”, he said referring to the Frelimo victories in the two previous general elections. “What are they thinking? They’ve become used to it, but I promise I will not let them go any further”.
He said that if Frelimo wanted to challenge him, he was ready to accept the challenge, “and at the end we will see who goes down on their knees and apologises”.
“Let them try and form a government. I shall form my own. Don’t come and say that it’s Dhlakama who divided the country”, he continued.
“The ball is in Frelimo’s court, and as from today I am prepared to do whatever is necessary, but nobody recognises these results”.
Dhlakama made it clear that he wants to carve up power with Frelimo, regardless of the verdict of the electorate. “If they ring up and say ‘Dhlakama come to Maputo for us to negotiate’, then I’ll go”, he said.
Asked where he would find the money to finance his “parallel government”, Dhlakama spoke vaguely about the wealth of the central provinces where Renamo was the party with the most votes.
The MDM leader and mayor of Beira, Daviz Simango, described the elections as “the most fraudulent in the history of Mozambican democracy” – nonetheless, he told supporters in Beira that his respect for the country’s laws, and his determination to keep the peace, obliged him to accept the results.
Looking on the bright side, Simango said that the MDM was the true winner in the election since it had more than doubled the size of its parliamentary group (from 8 to 17).
In Maputo his brother, Lutero Simango, acting as the MDM election agent, told reports that the Constitutional Council’s validation of the results was “a sad moment” because the Council “lost an opportunity to restore the truth and electoral justice”.
“We shall continue to wage our struggle so that Mozambicans may have a government of the people for the people”, he pledged.
The Frelimo election agent, Veronica Macamo, dismissed the Renamo and MDM claims of fraud. She pointed out that the three main political parties had each been entitled to appoint a member of the polling station staff at each of the over 17,000 polling stations. So at each polling station there were two opposition members of staff to one from Frelimo.
“The opposition parties had their representatives at the polling stations who couldn’t have been deceived by Frelimo”, she said.
She urged Renamo and the MDM to regard the elections as an expression of the will of the Mozambican people, and to join with the people in building the country’s future. AIM Maputo
