The president of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi, criticised on Wednesday Venâncio Mondlane’s impositions on the meeting with the head of state and other presidential candidates, rejecting the creation of a unilateral agenda.
“We’re going to evolve, but we don’t create agendas for dialogue or negotiations as they want them to be unilateral. There’s the first meeting in which people then say what their concerns are, that’s what makes the agenda, but if you’re making an agenda, that’s your agenda. Who can say that the other person wants it?” the president warned during the reception for the deans of Mozambican universities in the face of the post-election tension in the country.
Filipe Nyusi defended the previously scheduled meeting with the four presidential candidates as a way of listening to their concerns, pointing out that it was a model of dialogue created to “get some ideas” in the face of the demonstrations and stoppages called by Venâncio Mondlane, who is contesting the election results.
“But there were demands for an agenda (…) I invited the four presidential candidates, the format was four plus one. There were different thoughts, whether the format was better or not, but that’s not what I’m worried about, because when you do dialogue, there are many steps,” said the head of state, who denied imposing an agenda and argued that each presidential candidate and the political party had their own concerns.
“When we discuss our problems, we are repeating ourselves (…) So we have to find a model at each moment, and not repeat models, that’s why one of the guests didn’t come; those who came needed this, but then we ended up having targeted meetings. I’ve already met with everyone individually, and I’m hearing concerns from each one that are not the same,” he pointed out.
In the same speech, Filipe Nyusi called for an end to violence between demonstrators and police and also warned that “there are people” who have confirmed to the Mozambican authorities that they are funding protests.
“There are people with money to distribute. Some have even stopped at police stations and confirmed they share food for people to demonstrate. We’re not forbidding them from giving food; if they can feed people, it would be good,” he said.
On 22 November, Venâncio Mondlane demanded the immediate elimination of the legal proceedings against him, brought by the Mozambican Public Prosecutor’s Office, and his virtual participation as a condition for the meeting with the President of the Republic.
In the document submitted to the Presidency of the Republic and the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) containing terms of reference and agenda proposals, Mondlane made the meeting scheduled for Tuesday between the head of state and the four presidential candidates conditional on the “release of all those detained as part of the demonstrations” he had called for, and then asked for “guarantees of political and legal security for the actors and players in the dialogue”.
On Monday, Mondlane called for a new week of electoral protest in “all the neighbourhoods” of Mozambique, starting today. Traffic would be paralysed from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (6 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Lisbon).
The announcement by Mozambique’s National Electoral Commission (CNE) on 24 October of the results of the 9 October elections, in which it awarded victory to Daniel Chapo, supported by the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo, the party in power since 1975) in the election for President of the Republic, with 70.67% of the votes, triggered popular protests, called by Venâncio Mondlane and which have degenerated into violent clashes with the police, which have already caused at least 76 deaths.
According to the CNE, Mondlane came second with 20.32%, but the latter does not recognise the results, which still have to be validated and proclaimed by the Constitutional Council.
Lusa
