FRELIMO NOMINATES MORE CANDIDATES

The ruling Frelimo party has completed the list of its candidates who will contest by-elections scheduled for 7 December in the municipalities of Cuamba, Pemba and Quelimane, in Mozambique.This follows the nominations of Vicente Lourenco and Tagir Assamo Carimo, who will stand for the ruling Frelimo in the municipalities of Cuamba and Pemba, both in the northern provinces of Niassa and Cabo Delgado respectively.Lourenco Abubacar Bico, the third candidate, was nominated on Monday to contest in the municipality of Quelimane, capital city of the central province of Zambezia.Three by-elections have been triggered by the resignations of the mayors of Quelimane, Pemba and Cuamba (Pio Matos, Sidique Yacub and Arnaldo Maloa). They had been elected on the Frelimo ticket in 2008, and it has been reported that Frelimo, dissatisfied with their performance, requested their resignations (though the three men themselves cite personal reasons).In Cuamba, Vicente Lourenco will face Maria Moreno, candidate for Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), the second largest opposition party in the country. For his part, Tagir Carimo will face in Pemba the MDM candidate Assamo Tique.As for the city of Quelimane, the ruling Frelimo party candidate Lourenco Abubacar Bico, will contest the election with his rival from MDM, Manuel de Araujo. Afonso Dhlakama, leader of the largest opposition party Renamo, has announced that his party is boycotting the by-elections.Therefore, MDM candidates are likely to be the most serious opposition faced by the ruling Frelimo party, which holds a comfortable majority in the municipal assemblies in all three