RENAMO boycotts opposition meeting

They also promised “not to attack each other”, and to “maintain mutual respect, honesty and humility”. They would “participate in agreed political activities”, and would “maintain confidentiality about agreed strategies”.

17 parties signed the brief agreement – but the only serious forces on the list, the former rebel movement Renamo, and the Party for Peace, Democracy and Development (PDD), led by the former number two in Renamo, Raul Domingos, failed to show up.

Renamo’s presence at the gathering was the bait dangled before journalists to persuade them to attend. No plausible explanation was given for Renamo’s absence. One member of the group’s secretariat said no Renamo representative was there “because of last minute problems”

The second parliamentary opposition force, the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), was not even invited. The leader of the MDM parliamentary group, Lutero Simango, told AIM that, even if it had been invited the MDM would not have attended.

The upshot was a room full of miniscule parties that have never been elected to parliament, or to any of the country’s municipal or provincial assemblies. These are parties that have few votes, fewer members, no offices, no websites, no publications – pretty well none of the trappings that identify modern political parties.

Which didn’t prevent them from demanding money from the Mozambican state. Presenting the document, Francisco Campira, president of PASOMO (Social Broadening Party), said that funds for election campaigns should be distributed equally among all parties, regardless of their representation in parliament.

He was thus demanding that parties with proven support among the electorate, such as the ruling Frelimo Party, Renamo or the MDM, should be treated on a footing of equality with tiny groups that cannot obtain even one per cent of the vote.

One of the parties that signed the Friday agreement is the Party of Social Democratic Reconciliation (PRDS). In the 2009 parliamentary election, the PRDS took just 399 votes – 0.01 per cent.