The ManicaPost
MAPUTO — The first secretary of the ruling Frelimo Party in the western Mozambican province of Tete, Fernando Bemane, has urged all veterans of the liberation war against Portuguese colonial rule to work for a convincing win by Frelimo in October’s municipal elections.
Speaking at the opening of a session of the Tete provincial branch of the Association of Veterans of the National Liberation Struggle (ACLLN), Bemane said “just as they achieved national independence, so the veterans should start mobilising the population to guarantee a Frelimo victory next October”.
Frelimo’s activities, he urged “should be at the centre of the veterans’ attentions”. Their role in freeing Mozambique from colonial rule meant that they remain a source of inspiration, Bemane said.
“We don’t want to hear that Frelimo has lost here in Tete, since there’s no reason why that should happen”, he stressed. “The four municipalities should remain in Frelimo’s hands, and we must prove this convincingly in October”.
The municipalities he was referring to are Tete city, Moatize, Ulongue and Nhamayabue. They all currently have Frelimo mayors and a Frelimo majority in their municipal assemblies. Frelimo has never lost any municipal elections in Tete.
In practice, the countdown towards the October elections has already started, said Bemane, and so the time had come for Frelimo to begin its preparation.
A year after the municipal elections, there will be presidential, parliamentary and provincial elections, and so “we are not speaking about a crushing victory only in the municipal elections, since we must also prepare ourselves for the 2019 general elections”, Bemane added.
He urged the Tete veterans to spread the image of the party and of President Filipe Nyusi. The party’s supporters should wear T-shirts, caps and other items of clothing bearing the Frelimo symbols and the portrait of Nyusi, “so that we can divulge the image of our Party and of our President who will also be our candidate for the 2019 presidential election”.
Nobody should be ashamed of wearing the image of Frelimo and of Nyusi on their clothing, he declared.
Participants at the Tete conference, held under the slogan “Let us make the ACLLN an instrument to strengthen peace”, approved a report of activities undertaken in 2017 and a plan of activities for 2018. —allafrica.com
