Africa-Press – Mozambique. President Daniel Chapo of Mozambique, speaking in his capacity as president of the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), today defended, in an allusion to the recent electoral process, the holding of peaceful elections in Mozambique, in which the losers congratulate the winners.
“It should be like this. The one who loses should pick up the phone, call the one who won, wish them many congratulations and know that in five years there will be other elections. And we should work as Mozambican brothers and develop our country,” said Daniel Chapo.
The head of state was speaking at the opening of the induction seminar for the ruling party’s deputies, which is taking place today in Matola, and once again compared the electoral process to a football match, alluding to the electoral irregularities pointed out by the opposition in the general elections of 9 October, in which the fifth President of the Republic was elected.
“The referee has cards in his pocket, yellow cards, red cards, because he knows that during the 90 minutes there will be someone who, because he wants to win, will commit fouls. But, even if there is a red card or cards (…) if there is a team that was winning 2-0 and, in this team, there are two players who received red cards, left for having committed irregularities, these irregularities do not nullify the result of the game. The team continues to win 2-0,” Chapo pointed out.
Comparing the above mentioned example to the electoral process, that “not all irregularities nullify the result of the game”, he stressed.
“When we say that we must be agents of political stability, we mean that for 90 minutes people fight and commit fouls because they want to win. But when the game ends, what should happen should be the same as what happens in a football match. When the game ends, one team has lost, the other has won, the players hug each other and there are even championships where players exchange jerseys,” he said.
The general elections of October 9 degenerated into social unrest for several months, with 400 deaths, destruction and looting of businesses and public institutions, and people contesting the results. On March 5, Daniel Chapo signed a political ‘peace agreement’ with all political parties, which he described as a “new era” for the country, providing for structural reforms. On March 23, he met Venâncio Mondlane for the first time, the presidential candidate who called for the protests, a meeting he repeated on Tuesday, now in a scenario of peace.
In the same speech this morning, addressing Frelimo parliamentarians, Chapo said that they must have party discipline and loyalty to the party, recalling that in the elections, which once again gave the party a majority in the Assembly of the Republic, none of them “had their face” on the ballot paper.
“All voters, when they went to vote, voted for Frelimo. Therefore, it is important for Frelimo MPs to foresee that they must base their behaviour on scrupulous observance of the norms and principles of the statutes and program of the Frelimo party, directives, regulations in addition to the Constitution and the ordinary legislation of the Republic (…). Each MP must be aware that they are in the Assembly of the Republic to fulfil the mission of the party,” Chapo emphasized.
He assured Frelimo MPs that, “with [their] dedication and commitment”, it would be possible to “renew Mozambique, building a better life” for the people.
Calling for “everyone’s involvement”, he stressed that it would be possible to “improve the state of infrastructure in terms of quantity and quality” and raise the “level of national capital by improving the quality of education and health”.
“We will ensure that the country’s natural resources are exploited responsibly, benefiting, in fact, and first and foremost, Mozambicans and the national interest,” Chapo stressed.
“Therefore, comrades, the national interest and the Mozambican people must come before the interests of individuals and groups,” he said.
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