CENTRAL COMMITTEE APPROVES FRELIMO MANIFESTO

The Central Committee of Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo Party on Tuesday approved the party’s manifesto for the presidential, parliamentary and provincial elections scheduled for 15 October – but it will not be made fully public until the election campaign begins.However, the main pillars of the manifesto are “the consolidation of national unity, of the democratic rule of law, and of social justice; strengthening the capacity of the state to continue responding effectively to the desires of the people; the promotion of sustainable social and economic development, the creation of wealth and the fight against poverty; and the consolidation of the culture of peace and democracy”. The Central Committee also approved a set of directives for the internal Frelimo elections which will select candidates for the parliamentary and provincial elections. The spokesperson for the meeting, Damiao Jose, said that the basic principle for a slate of Frelimo candidates remained that of “renewal in continuity”. This means, for example, that in the Frelimo lists of parliamentary candidates, 60 per cent should consist of people who are already parliamentary deputies, while the other 40 per cent should be new blood.Frelimo currently holds 191 of the 250 seats in the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic. On the rule of 40 per cent new blood, 76 of these deputies will not be eligible to stand for a further term. In his speech closing the Central Committee meeting, President Armando Guebuza declared that democracy in Frelimo is not a piece of political theatre, but is deep rooted. Frelimo, he said, “is the fruit and promoter of democracy, a democracy it has been cultivating throughout its 50 years of existence”.

 It was because of its commitment to democracy, he added, that Frelimo had galvanised Mozambicans “to fight against colonialism, oppression, humiliation, discrimination and ignorance to win freedom, dignity, equality, knowledge and self-esteem”. Anyone who imagined that Frelimo was nearing its end, or was about to split, merely showed they did not know the party, Guebuza said, and “they were surprised with the image we all projected at the end of sharp debates in the previous meeting of the Central Committee, images of a cohesive party united around its candidate, Filipe Nyusi”.The previous meeting took place from 27 February to 2 March, and the main item on the agenda was the election of the Frelimo presidential candidate. Five names were proposed, and former defence minister Filipe Nyusi won, although the runner-up, former prime minister Luisa Diogo, forced him to a second round. Since then, Frelimo leaders have insistently announced their whole-hearted backing for Nyusi, and Diogo has rejected rumours spread in social media that she might run as an independent. Frelimo, Guebuza said, was born of the democratic will of Mozambicans to unite against the colonial invaders. Right from the moment Frelimo was created, he stressed, it has elected its leaders by secret ballot, and the election of Nyusi as presidential candidate was no exception.Guebuza said the documents approved by the Central Committee “enshrine the message of inclusion, confidence, hope, change and belief that the individual and collective determination of Frelimo can bring about changes in the living conditions of Mozambicans”.He was convinced that Frelimo has emerged from the Central Committee meeting and from last week’s Cadre Conference more united than ever, and ready to face the challenge of winning a resounding victory in the October elections.