Dozens of armed police on Thursday stormed Mozambique’s Parliament to try to restore order after opposition lawmakers brought business to a halt for the second day running.
However the police failed to quell angry protests by the whistling, singing and dancing deputies — all members of a coalition of opposition parties, including the country’s main Mozambique National Resistance Party (Renamo).
The protest was similar to one held in Parliament on Wednesday, in which the deputies vented their anger over the ruling party’s refusal to replace five of their members who had either been expelled from the party or had left by their own free will in recent months.
President Joaquim Chissano’s Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) insists the five should continue to serve as independents in Parliament until general elections in 2004.
This has angered the opposition, who argue that the lawmakers got into Parliament on a Renamo party ticket and should be replaced immediately.
They accuse the ruling party of trying to extend its influence in the assembly by creating ”an illegal third force” of independents.
In general elections won by Frelimo in 1999, the opposition coalition took 117 seats to Frelimo’s 133. – Sapa-AFP