Two prominent lawmakers in Mozambique’s main opposition group Renamo said on Thursday they are leaving the party, deepening a rift among the former rebels ahead of local polls next year and general elections in 2004.
Almeida Tambara and Chico Francisco said they were leaving Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo) because conditions within the party had soured. Both will complete their terms in parliament, which end with the general elections in 2004. The departures have deepened a rift within Renamo that developed nearly two years ago when the party’s leadership expelled its former peace negotiator Raul Domingos.
The split worsened in July, when Renamo fired its secretary general Joaquim Vaz, one year after electing him to the post. Vaz had called for Domingos’ reinstatement.
”I am leaving Renamo because the political environment inside the party is not good,” said Tambara. Tambara accused Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama of behaving like a dictator, saying there was no democracy inside the party.
”Decisions are taken out of emotions without any consultation amongst all party members,” he said, referring to Vaz’s unprecedented dismissal.
Tambara said Vaz’s sacking was ”regrettable.” Francisco, also a prominent MP, said he was ”in the process of departing, for the environment in Renamo is tense and full of frustrations.”
Francisco said he would tell the leadership of his intention. ”There is no dignity in Renamo,” he added. Dhlakama said the two lawmakers should resign their seats in parliament, even though they are legally allowed to keep their positions. ”Domingos, Tambara and Francisco should vacate their seats for they were not elected as individual persons, but as Renamo,” Dhlakama said.
Maximo Dias, a respected Maputo lawyer, said that the law clearly states that MPs can retain their seats after leaving a political party, provided they do not join another party. Analysts have linked the desertions to Domingos’s plan of forming a political party.
Domingos, who headed Renamo’s parliamentary group until his expulsion, announced in July that he would run for president in the 2004 elections — either backed by a political party or as an independent candidate. Domingos set up the Democratic Institute for Peace and Development shortly after his sacking, and said he likely would form a political party to fill a ”vacuum” between Frelimo and Renamo.
He was expelled for allegedly holding secret talks with the ruling Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) during a political crisis over Dhlakama’s rejection of the 1999 general election results.
Domingos led the Renamo team during two years of peace talks with the Mozambican government in Rome, which culminated with the signing of a peace accord in late 1992 that ended 16 years of civil war in the southern African state.
Mozambique has about 15 small opposition parties, but they have failed to win much support in an environment of tension between the two main parties.
In 1999, at least 10 small parties were forced to ally with Renamo to secure some seats in parliament. – Sapa-AFP