Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Central Committee of Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo Party on Sunday began the third day of a meeting to choose the party’s candidate for the presidential election scheduled for 9 October.
The meeting began on Friday and should have lasted for just one day, since the presidential election is the only point on the agenda.
But it has proved impossible to reach consensus. The party’s political commission on Friday presented a short list of three potential candidates, but the Central Committee majority demanded that more names be added to the list.
So on Sunday morning, a new list was circulated containing five names. The two names added were Esperanca Bias, the speaker of the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, and a former Minister of Mineral Resources; and a prominent Frelimo parliamentarian, Francisco Mucanheia, who is an adviser to President Filipe Nyusi.
No names were removed from the short list, so it still contains the names of the Frelimo General Secretary, Roque Silva, the party’s former spokesperson, Damiao Joao and the governor of the southern province of Inhambane, Daniel Chapo. Esperanca Bias is the only woman on the list.
The Central Committee meeting is mostly taking place behind closed doors, with journalists waiting outside, hoping for the occasional snatch of conversation with a Committee member during intervals.
The atmosphere of secrecy favours gossip and rumour. Names of potential candidates are circulated, some plausible and many not. There is considerable surprise that, so far, political heavyweights such as former prime ministers Aires Ali and Luisa Diogo, and former interior ministers Basilio Monteiro and Jose Pacheco are not on the short list.
No-one is hazarding a guess as to how long the meeting might last.
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