Maputo — Three more tiny political parties on Monday publicly announced their support for the incumbent president, Armando Guebuza, in the general elections scheduled for 28 October.
Perhaps the most surprising statement came from Amiel Manhique, the Deputy President of the Social Liberal Party (SOL), who declared that his party "unconditionally" supports Guebuza, who "has the best programme", and urged "all citizens to maintain peace and stability".
But this same Amiel Manhique was one of the most violent speakers at a meeting of minor parties held in a Maputo hotel on 7 October, which demanded that the international community should impose economic sanctions against Mozambique to force negotiations between the Mozambican government and the extra-parliamentary parties.
At this meeting, Amiel called for a national insurrection, and urged the roomful of failed politicians to "go to war".
AIM asked Manhique how someone who had been so enthusiastic about staging an uprising earlier in the month could now call for non-violence. He explained that between the two meetings, the SOL Political Commission had met and decided to support Guebuza.
He added "we are not talking about Frelimo, we are talking about Guebuza", but could not answer the journalists who asked "what's the difference?"
Manhique also denied that Frelimo had organised his press conference - but journalists pointed out that they had been invited to the conference by mobile phone text messages sent, not by SOL, but by a Frelimo official.
A second party which declared its support for Guebuza was the deeply obscure Progressive Union Party (PUP). Its leader, Pedro Langa, said he had initially intended to run for President, but had changed his mind.
He was indignant at reporters' suggestions that he had dropped out because he could not collect the 10,000 supporting signatures from registered voters that are required from all presidential candidates.
Langa claimed that PUP, formed in 2006, is based in the central province of Sofala, where it has 38,000 members. No report from Sofala has ever mentioned PUP, and it did not stand any candidates in any of the four Sofala municipalities in the 2008 local elections.
When AIM asked if PUP had any policies that differentiate it from other Mozambican political parties, Langa was unable to answer.
The third party to throw its rather miniscule weight behind Guebuza was the Party for Freedom and Development (PLD), whose general secretary, Jose Alberto, praised Guebuza for leading the struggle against absolute poverty.
In this case, presumably the PLD will be withdrawing from the parliamentary elections, AIM suggested, since Guebuza is not fighting poverty alone, but with the support of his party, Frelimo.
The PLD president, Caetano Sabile, then tried to draw a distinction between the fight against poverty, championed by Guebuza, and the fight for "economic independence", which is the PLD's top priority.
He called for cancellation of Mozambique's foreign debt, but displayed no knowledge of the steps already taken in this direction by Frelimo governments over the past decade. Sabile had never heard of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt relief initiative, under which much of Mozambique's debt has been cancelled.
Asked in what ways PLD policies differ from those of Frelimo, Sabile criticized the allocation of funds to the districts under the Local Initiative Investment Budget (OIIL). He disagreed with giving the money as loans for food security and job creation projects and wanted it spent on infrastructure instead.
Sabile was blithely unaware that the OIIL is an initiative by Armando Guebuza himself. He was thus attacking the government policy that is most strongly associated with the presidential candidate he claims to support.
As for the PLD's use of the turkey as its symbol, Sabile insisted that this bird "represents Mozambican pride". The PLD appears ignorant of the fact that turkeys are not African birds at all, but are native to the Americas.
Perhaps the most surprising statement came from Amiel Manhique, the Deputy President of the Social Liberal Party (SOL), who declared that his party "unconditionally" supports Guebuza, who "has the best programme", and urged "all citizens to maintain peace and stability".
But this same Amiel Manhique was one of the most violent speakers at a meeting of minor parties held in a Maputo hotel on 7 October, which demanded that the international community should impose economic sanctions against Mozambique to force negotiations between the Mozambican government and the extra-parliamentary parties.
At this meeting, Amiel called for a national insurrection, and urged the roomful of failed politicians to "go to war".
AIM asked Manhique how someone who had been so enthusiastic about staging an uprising earlier in the month could now call for non-violence. He explained that between the two meetings, the SOL Political Commission had met and decided to support Guebuza.
He added "we are not talking about Frelimo, we are talking about Guebuza", but could not answer the journalists who asked "what's the difference?"
Manhique also denied that Frelimo had organised his press conference - but journalists pointed out that they had been invited to the conference by mobile phone text messages sent, not by SOL, but by a Frelimo official.
A second party which declared its support for Guebuza was the deeply obscure Progressive Union Party (PUP). Its leader, Pedro Langa, said he had initially intended to run for President, but had changed his mind.
He was indignant at reporters' suggestions that he had dropped out because he could not collect the 10,000 supporting signatures from registered voters that are required from all presidential candidates.
Langa claimed that PUP, formed in 2006, is based in the central province of Sofala, where it has 38,000 members. No report from Sofala has ever mentioned PUP, and it did not stand any candidates in any of the four Sofala municipalities in the 2008 local elections.
When AIM asked if PUP had any policies that differentiate it from other Mozambican political parties, Langa was unable to answer.
The third party to throw its rather miniscule weight behind Guebuza was the Party for Freedom and Development (PLD), whose general secretary, Jose Alberto, praised Guebuza for leading the struggle against absolute poverty.
In this case, presumably the PLD will be withdrawing from the parliamentary elections, AIM suggested, since Guebuza is not fighting poverty alone, but with the support of his party, Frelimo.
The PLD president, Caetano Sabile, then tried to draw a distinction between the fight against poverty, championed by Guebuza, and the fight for "economic independence", which is the PLD's top priority.
He called for cancellation of Mozambique's foreign debt, but displayed no knowledge of the steps already taken in this direction by Frelimo governments over the past decade. Sabile had never heard of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt relief initiative, under which much of Mozambique's debt has been cancelled.
Asked in what ways PLD policies differ from those of Frelimo, Sabile criticized the allocation of funds to the districts under the Local Initiative Investment Budget (OIIL). He disagreed with giving the money as loans for food security and job creation projects and wanted it spent on infrastructure instead.
Sabile was blithely unaware that the OIIL is an initiative by Armando Guebuza himself. He was thus attacking the government policy that is most strongly associated with the presidential candidate he claims to support.
As for the PLD's use of the turkey as its symbol, Sabile insisted that this bird "represents Mozambican pride". The PLD appears ignorant of the fact that turkeys are not African birds at all, but are native to the Americas.
Source: Allafrica
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