The Portuguese Foreign Minister, Paulo Rangel, said today that the new Mozambican President’s openness to dialogue and reform should be taken advantage of.
Paulo Rangel was responding to members of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Portuguese Communities during a formal hearing, emphasising the importance of all parties establishing ‘a path out of this crisis and instability’ in Mozambique.
‘What I found, and have found repeatedly, is the new Mozambican President’s willingness to engage in dialogue and reform, and this opportunity must be seized,’ he said.
And he added that this ‘implies that the opposition parties, which have a demanding set of specifications that are largely worthy of acceptance’, have shown ‘willingness to engage in this conversation’.
‘It’s important that candidate Mondlane is willing to enter into dialogue, which he has shown he is,’ he said.
For Paulo Rangel, it is important that all parties establish a path out of this crisis and instability.
‘We are willing to collaborate. Dialogue is essential. It’s very important to open channels for dialogue in order to create stability and prosperity,’ he said.
Mozambique’s Constitutional Council proclaimed Daniel Chapo, the candidate supported by the ruling Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo), the winner of the presidential election, with 65.17% of the votes, as well as the victory of Frelimo, which retained its parliamentary majority in the general elections on 9 October.
This announcement sparked chaos across the country, with supporters of Venâncio Mondlane – who, according to the Constitutional Council, won only 24 per cent of the vote – demonstrating in the streets, with barricades, looting and clashes with the police.
The contestation of the election results has already resulted in at least 315 deaths and around 750 gunshot wounds, according to civil society organisations.
Lusa
