Speaking on Tuesday, in the central city of Quelimane, according to a report on the independent television station STV, Dhlakama declared that if the ruling Frelimo Party rejects his proposal to form a “caretaker government”, then “the population of the provinces where Renamo has a majority will form a government of the centre and north of the country”.
But at the same time, he pledged that he would never go back to war. He did not explain how he could possible separate “the centre and north” from the rest of Mozambique without resorting to violence.
Some of Dhlakama’s supporters at the Quelimane rally did not want any form of coalition government and called for Dhlakama to take power on his own. But he insisted that a caretaker government “is the only correct solution”.
“I guarantee that we shall govern”, Dhlakama told the crowd. “Frelimo shall never form a government again based on stolen votes”. He thus quietly forgot his own words before the elections that the new electoral legislation imposed by Renamo made it impossible to steal elections.
Dhlakama was angered that the second opposition party, the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), has rejected the caretaker government proposal. He said this was because the MDM “contains radicals who are against Renamo”.
The MDM was “excluding itself” from the coalition he intended to form, although he wanted the MDM to be part of it.
He added that his future government would include leaders of minor parties such as Raul Domingos and Yaqub Sibindy.
Domingos was once the number two in Renamo, and headed the Renamo team that negotiated the 1992 peace agreement with the government. But he fell out with Dhlakama and was expelled from Renamo in 2000. He set up his own party, the PDD (Party of Peace, Democracy and Development), which was briefly regarded as a potential third force, but has now been comprehensively eclipsed by the MDM.
As for Sibindy, he heads a thinly disguised Islamic party, PIMO (Independent Party of Mozambique).
Neither Domingos nor Sibindy were able to collect the 10,000 signatures of registered voters needed on order to stand in the October presidential elections. As for the parliamentary election, the PDD and PIMO were among 27 minor parties standing, none of whom managed to attract as much as one per cent of the vote.
Post published in: Africa News