President Joaquim Chissano «Don't-cry-for-me-Mozambique-tour»

© Ministère Française des Affaires Étrangères

afrol News, 27 September - Joaquim Chissano, Mozambican President since 1986, today embarked on a farewell roundtrip to all the country's eleven provinces. In December, Mr Chissano will step down after Mozambique's voters have chosen his successor. Some 9.1 million voters have been registered to take part in Mozambique's December poll.

18 years after coming to power, President Chissano now is bidding farewell to all Mozambicans. His roundtrip to all of the country's eleven provinces has already been dubbed a "Don't cry for me, Mozambique" tour, aiming at giving his chosen predecessor electoral support.

The 64-year-old President's roundtrip today started in the far north of Mozambique, in Cabo Delgado Province at the Tanzanian border. From here, he will go straight on to bid farewell with the minority of Mozambicans that voted for him in the northern provinces of Niassa, Nampula, Zambézia, Tete and Manica. After an interruption in Maputo, the capital, he is to cover the southern provinces in mid-October.

Mr Chissano took power after Mozambique's liberation hero and founding President Samora Machel died in a plane crash over South Africa in 1986. His then-communist Frelimo party and movement at the time was at war with the Renamo movement; sponsored by South Africa's apartheid regime.

As Mozambican President, Mr Chissano oversaw the signing of a peace accord between Frelimo and Renamo in 1992, ending 16 years of civil war and destruction. With multi-party democracy, Renamo has emerged Mozambique's main political opposition, but has repeatedly been beaten by President Chissano's Frelimo at a national level.

At the December poll, however, Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama stands a good chance of winning as he is far more known than President Chissano's hand-picked successor, the wealthy businessman Armando Guebuza. President Chissano is nevertheless doing his utmost to present Mr Guebuza as a freedom fighting veteran "like me".

Mozambican observers therefore emphasise that the President's roundtrip principally is an early start of the election campaign. Mr Chissano's spokesman Bento Baloi however holds that "this will be a visit from the north to the south, where the President will hold rallies to bid farewell to the population." The President earlier is reported to have said he would also "use the opportunity" to present Mr Guebuza as Frelimo's candidate.

President Chissano last year free willingly announced he would not seek a third presidential term even though the Mozambican constitution probably does not oblige him to stand down - depending on how the national legislation is read. The moved partially was announced as a manoeuvre to strengthen democratic institutions in the country and Mozambique's international credibility as a democracy.

While the President starts his "rally" to the north, government officials are busily preparing for the December polls. The independent election commission yesterday officially ended the registration of voters, having registered a total of 9.1 million eligible Mozambicans.

While the authorities are expected to organise free and fair elections - such as the internationally hailed municipal polls in November last year - logistics are set to cause problems. Already now, the voter register is reported to have registered up to a million Mozambicans twice. In last years' poll, outdated voter registers were blamed for the low voter turnout.

While international observers hailed the recent municipal poll, the Renamo opposition disagrees on foreign reports regarding President Chissano's democratic record. Mr Dhlakama still maintains that the 1999 presidential polls, which he officially lost to Mr Chissano, were marred by irregularities. Mozambican authorities, highly dependent on foreign goodwill and funds, are nevertheless believed to do their best to organise free and fair polls in December.

According to official results, Mr Chissano narrowly won the 1999 polls with 52 percent of the votes, while Mr Dhlakama had obtained 48 percent of all votes. At last year's municipal elections, the ruling Frelimo won at least two-thirds of the 33 municipalities contested, making it a disastrous poll for Mr Dhlakama's Renamo party.

By staff writers

© afrol News

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