In the secret ballot elections, 1,858 votes were cast. Of these, Guebuza won 1,835 (98.76 per cent). There were also 23 blank ballots (1.24 per cent).
1,939 delegates are attending the Congress, and are entitled to vote. But not all of them were in the Congress hall on Wednesday.
Some of the press regarded the vote as a huge victory for Guebuza. The editorial director of the independent media group Soico, Jeremias Langa, went so far as to say that the scale of the victory would give Guebuza the power to shape the rest of the party leadership.
In reality, however, Guebuza’s vote is not significantly different from that won by his predecessor, Joaquim Chissano, at the eighth Frelimo Congress in 2002. Then Chissano, also unopposed, won 96.9 per cent of the votes, while the remaining 3.1 per cent were blank ballots.
Following Guebuza’s re-election, speculation was rife that this would lead to “two centres of power” in Frelimo after the 2014 general elections. Guebuza would be head of the party, while somebody else (not yet chosen) would be President of the Republic (assuming that, as seems more than likely, Frelimo wins the election.
In theory, the term of office of the President of Frelimo is from one Congress to the next (five or six years). So it is not out of the question that Guebuza could head Frelimo for three or four years after 2014, while somebody else is head of state.
The only time this scenario has arisen before was after Guebuza won the December 2004 presidential election, and Chissano was still head of the party. Chissano ended any possible conflict by resigning as leader of Frelimo in March 2005, thus allowing the party once again to unite the posts of President of the Republic and President of Frelimo in the same hands.
Immediately after his re-election, Guebuza thanked the delegates for the confidence they had shown in him. He pledged “I shall continue to work so that our glorious Frelimo Party becomes ever more glorious, and more victorious”.
He pledged to work to bring into reality “the dreams of our people, which are more than just the sum of the dreams of each of us”.
He warned that “the dream of well-being and of happiness can only be achieved with a great deal of hard work”.
“We all want well-being and all of us should play our part in contributing to this well-being, and to strengthening increasingly our unity, and above all our self-esteem”, Guebuza added. “We have to respect ourselves as individuals and as a nation”.
On Thursday, the altogether more complex election of the new, 180 strong Central Committee takes place. This involves ratifying the election of 116 members at the provincial conferences that preceded the Congress, and then electing the remaining 64 members.
The ballot paper is complex, given the Frelimo rules that only 60 per cent of the existing Central Committee can retain their seats, and there must be 40 per cent new blood. In addition, there are quotas for women, for young people (under the age of 35) and for veterans of the war for independence.
Any party member can be a candidate – provided they have not already run and lost at provincial level. This was the fate, for example, of one of Frelimo’s best known intellectuals, who failed to secure re-election to the Central Committee from his home province of Tete.
At its first meeting the new Central committee will elect the Political Commission (currently 17 strong), the General Secretary, the Secretary of the Verification Commission (the Frelimo disciplinary body), and the other members of the Secretariat, responsible for the day-to-day running of the Party.
Post published in: Africa News