Africa-Press – Mozambique. Mozambican President Daniel Chapo announced on Saturday that the “inclusive national dialogue” will begin on 10 September.
Speaking at a rally in the Maputo municipal district of Katembe, Chapo urged all segments of society to take part in the dialogue. “All of us, as Mozambicans – political parties with or without parliamentary seats, civil society, academics, workers, peasants, young people, women, our friends in the mass media, all are invited to participate with ideas, so that one day we have elections in Mozambique and, when they are over, the loser picks up the telephone and congratulates the winner, goes home and waits for the next elections”.
Chapo thus made it clear that he regards the dialogue as a means of avoiding future post-election violence. He lamented the unrest and violence that had followed the declaration of the results of the October 2024 general elections – results that were widely regarded as fraudulent.
He wanted to see improvements in the electoral legislation, but insisted that anyone hoping to win the next elections must begin preparing as from now. “The team that does not train, does not win”, Chapo declared. “So you have to train”.
Citizens must take part in the dialogue, he insisted, “so as to point out what is wrong without fear, in order to achieve consensus”.
“If we need to change a law, then we shall change it”, he said. “Even if we need to amend the Constitution, we shall amend it so that we may have consensual laws”.
The “inclusive dialogue” is based on a document signed by Chapo and nine political parties in March, which the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, then transformed into a law.
Most of the parties that signed the initial document are tiny and politically irrelevant. The main opposition figure, Venancio Mondlane, who was runner up in the 2024 presidential election, was not involved in those discussions.
But subsequently he formed his own political party, Anamola (National Alliance for a Free and Autonomous Mozambique) which has declared its willingness to take part in the national dialogue. Given Chapo’s call for “inclusive” dialogue, there is no good reason to keep Mondlane and Anamola out of future discussions.
Mondlane claimed that he was the true winner of the presidential elections. But neither he, nor Chapo, have publicly presented the polling station results sheets that could prove their competing claims.
The Constitutional Council, Mozambique’s highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law, could have solved the issue by ordering a recount, but it refused to do so.
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