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Lutero Simango, leader of the parliamentary group of the opposition Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), claimed on Wednesday that “the political freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution are being violated systematically in order to silence the voice of reason, of criticism and of ideas contrary to those of the government”.Speaking at the opening of a sitting of the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, Simango said that, outside of Maputo and the two cities with MDM mayors, Beira and Quelimane, “hindrances to the exercise of political activity are taking on alarming proportions”.He said that MDM offices were being vandalized, its flags burnt, and its members harassed and beaten. When such acts are reported to the police, Simango claimed, “they take no action against those responsible”.Unlike similar allegations made by the former rebel movement Renamo, Simango backed up his claims with specific examples. He said that in the central town of Catandica, the Barue district MDM mobilization officer was detained on Saturday, and the following day “influential members of the MDM district delegation were detained for several hours “in an act of harassment typical of anti-democratic regimes which survive on the basis of police force”.The MDM mobilization officer was only released when, on Monday pressure was put on the local Attorney’s office to intervene.Simango claimed that when the MDM in the southern city of Xai-Xai asked for police protection for a march marking the fourth anniversary of the creation of the party, the police asked the local leadership of the ruling Frelimo Party whether it should satisfy the MDM request.“This is further evidence that the political manipulation of the police is real”, he added, suggesting that “a full explanation should be given to the police about their mission in Mozambique”.When the central government remains indifferent to such abuses, “then we are faced with a government that has resigned from its responsibilities and is incapable of guaranteeing the democratic rule of law”.Simango also alleged that Radio Mozambique is in danger of losing its reputation for impartiality because of “strong political interference in the editorial management” of the public service broadcaster.He claimed that when journalists produce items with contents critical of the government, “they are warned and these reports are shelved”, and that some heads of provincial radio newsrooms “practice censorship and oblige the journalists to practice self-censorship to keep their jobs”.In chat programmes, Simango alleged that commentators critical of the government are overlooked in favour of those who share the government’s positions.He warned that lack of editorial independence in Radio Mozambique “could have great implications for Mozambican society, prejudicing democratization and the freedoms of thought and expression”.

Regardless of all threats made by the main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo Party will participate in the forthcoming municipal elections “with all our intelligence and strength”, declared the leader of the Frelimo parliamentary group, Margarida Talapa, on Wednesday.At the opening session of the first sitting this year of the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, Talapa noted that Renamo had first tried to block the new electoral legislation which was eventually approved in December, and now threatens, not only to boycott the elections, but to make it impossible to hold them.“This party says it won’t participate and it won’t allow the voters to go to the ballot box to choose freely their local leaders”, she said. “This is a clear demonstration of the arrogance that is characteristic of Renamo, and of disrespect for the constitution and laws of our state”.“The threats that we hear do not frighten us”, she added, “because they are no more than cries of despair from a party that is incapable of respecting the basic principles of democracy, and of competing with others on a footing of equality”.She wondered whether the real problem with Renamo was its “visible disorganization”, or went deeper, and was “a lack of strategy and an inability to present itself to the electorate with concrete ideas for the development of Mozambique”.Renamo knows perfectly well regular elections are the way the Mozambican people choose their leaders, said Talapa – so how could it be explained that Renamo was now refusing to take part in elections.“Does it just want to be a simple pressure group?”, she asked. “Don’t we deserve a better opposition than this?” Frelimo, Talapa announced, would prepare for the local elections at a meeting of its Central Committee, scheduled for 22-24 March. That meeting “will fine tune our electoral strategy to ensure the overwhelming victory of Frelimo and its candidates in all the country’s municipalities”.

“We in Frelimo reaffirm that our participation and victory in the coming elections is a national imperative”, she declared.In her opening speech, Talapa’s opposite number in the Renamo parliamentary group, Angelina Enoque, did not so much as mention the municipal elections. This sitting of the Assembly is scheduled to elect members of a new National Elections Commission (CNE), but Enoque gave no indication whether Renamo will take up the two seats to which it is entitled on the CNE.Instead, Enoque appealed to Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama to come to the rescue. “The people are crying out for help and only you can save it”, she said. “Only you can save us, the land and the people”.Enoque claimed that “the overwhelming majority” are with Dhlakama, “because they are suffering the atrocities of the government, hunger, misery, discrimination, exclusions and corruption”.“Somebody needs to save this democracy, this peace, this freedom, which cost so much to win”, she declared. Enoque claimed the government is “incapable and incompetent to manage natural disasters and to soften the suffering of the people”.She claimed that the government had learnt nothing from the massive floods of 2000 and that the flooding of January and February this year were in exactly the same areas. A glance at the map shows that this is largely untrue. Only the Limpopo Valley in Gaza province saw major flooding in both years. The floods on the Incomati, Save and Buzi rivers in 2000 were not repeated in 2013, and this year’s flooding in Zambezia was not foreshadowed by anything in 2000.Enoque claimed that, through American satellites, the government knew of disasters in advance, “but the only measures it takes are to mobilise people living in low lying areas to resettle on higher, safer ground”.Unlike Renamo, the second opposition force in the Assembly, the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), does take the forthcoming municipal elections seriously. The head of the MDM parliamentary group, Lutero Simango, said that the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE), the electoral branch of the civil service “has a great challenge ahead of it to demonstrate its professionalism and its independence from political parties, by handling the voter registration with impartiality and responsibility”.He said the MDM urges all citizens of voting age living in the municipalities “to register and obtain their voter’s card”, and pledged that his party will mobilise all its members and supporters to register.