Congress rejects leading presidential hopefuls

The two most prominent people vying to be Frelimo Presidential candidate in 2014 elections were both knocked off the Political Commission at the Central Committee meeting following the Frelimo 10th Congress in Pemba.

Prime Minister Aires Ali was seen as President Armando Guebuza's choice as arelatively weak President he could control, and his defeat shows the limit of Guebuza's power. Former Prime Minister Luisa Diogo was the anyone-but-Ali candidate.

The defeat of both shows that interests and power with the party are dispersed, and some compromises and negotiation will be needed before the Presidential candidate is selected next year by the Central Committee. The candidate does not have to be a member of the Political Commission, but it would be hard to select someone who did not have enough support within the Central Committee to have been elected to the Political Commission.

The Frelimo 10th Congress in Pemba 23-28 September 2012 elected the president of the party - re-electing Armando Guebuza unopposed - and elected one-third of the Central Committee. (The remainder had already been elected at provincial level.) The new Central Committee met on 27-28 September to elect the Secretary-General and Secretary of the Verification (discipline) Committee and the rest of the Political Commission.

The party president, Secretary-General, and Secretary of the Verification Committee are all full members of the Political Commission. (If not already elected members, the national President, Prime Minister, Speaker of parliament, and head of the Frelimo bench in parliament are non-voting members.)

All Frelimo bodies have quotas  for women (35%) and for new members (40%) for both the Political Commission and Central Committee, and also for war veterans (10%), young people (under 35, 20%) and business people for the Central Committee. This leads to 4 ballot papers for Political Commission and 10 ballot papers for Central Committee, in which voters tick up to the number of people who can be elected in that category.

The Central Committee only meets two or three times a year, but does select the Presidential candidate and the Political Commission. The Political Commission meets every week and is the most powerful Frelimo body, with a large influence over a Frelimo government.

New Political Commission

The Central Committee re-elected Filipe Paunde as Secretary-General and elected Jose Pacheco as Secretary of the Verification Committee; both were unopposed. Pacheco is Agriculture Minister and was an elected member of the previous Political Commission.

The Political Commission's 17 members are (by category):

Automatically members:

+ Armando Guebuza

+ Filipe Paunde

+ Jose Pacheco

By ballot paper and in order from the most voted, the remaining members of the Political Commission are: 

Re-elected men:

+ Alberto Chipande (fired first shot of liberation war; former Defence Minister)

+ Eneas Comiche (MP & chair of Plan & Budget Committee; former Finance Minister, Bank of Mozambique Governor, and Maputo mayor)

+ Eduardo Mulembwe (former Speaker of Parliament; outgoing Secretary of Verification Committee)

+ Raimundo Pachinuapa (guerrilla commander in liberation war; MP and businessman)

Re-elected women:

+ Margarida Talapa (Head of the Frelimo parliamentary bench)

+ Veronica Macamo (Speaker of Parliament)

+ Conceita Sortane (MP; former Frelimo training secretary)

+ Alcinda Abreu (Environment Minister)

New men:

+ Alberto Vaquina (133 votes, 72%; Governor of Tete)

+ Sergio Pantie (61%; outgoing Central Committee secretary for organization, and Frelimo election agent for recent municipal by-elections)

+ Carvalho MuAria (60%; Governor of Sofala)

+ Cadmiel Muthemba (52%; Public Works Minister)

New women:

+ Esperana Bias (133 votes, 72%; Minerals Minister)

+ Luclia Hama (70%; Governor of Maputo City)

Candidates defeated for re-election included Prime Minister Aires Ali, former prime minister Luisa Diogo, Planning and Development Minister Aiuba Cuereneia, and former general secretary of the Mozambican Womens Organisation (OMM) Paulina Mateus. Two members did not stand for re-election, Manuel Tome (deputy head of the Frelimo parliamentary group) and Teodoro Waty (head of the parliamentary Constitutional and Legal Affairs Commission). Waty could not stand because he was not re-elected to the Central Committee. Candidates not elected for new posts were: Edson Macuacua (34%; Frelimo Secretary for Mobilisation and Propaganda), Hermenegildo Infante (49%; First Secretary, Maputo City), Damiao Jose (22%; spokesperson for Frelimo parliamentarygroup) and Antonia Charre (42%; Sofala MP). Percentages were only released for the new candidates.

Note that there are inconsistencies in official spellings of names. It is Aires Ali on the Council of Ministers list but Aires Aly on Frelimo party lists. Mulembwe sometimes appears as Mulembu.

The new Central Committee secretariat, all elected unopposed, is: Sergio Pantie, Edson Macuacua, Damiao Jose, Aida Libombo (former Deputy Health Minister), Moreira Vasco (MP), Carmelita Namashalua (Minister of State Administration), and Jose Tomo Psico (director of INATUR, National Institute of Tourism).