Former Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano defended, on Saturday, that the country must “always cultivate peace”, in contexts such as the current one, characterized by demonstrations led by the opposition against the results of the municipal elections on 11 October.
“It is necessary to always cultivate peace” to prevent the country from returning to war, due to an electoral crisis, said Chissano, quoted by Lusa. The former Head of State (1986-2005) spoke on the sidelines of the annual AISEC meeting , a global youth organization that prepares young people for leadership roles.
Asked whether the main opposition party’s repudiation of the results of the local elections could lead the country to another armed conflict, Joaquim Chissano stressed that Mozambique needs to be prepared to avoid this scenario. “Conflict is always managed, we need to be prepared to manage our conflicts”, he said.
Chissano pointed to dialogue and solidarity as ways to prevent the outbreak of violence, highlighting the importance of instilling a culture of peace in young people. “Dialogue is the main weapon for maintaining peace,” he stressed.
The young people who demonstrate against the results of the aforementioned vote, he said, are exercising their right, emphasizing, to this end, the need to comply with the law and not resort to violence. “It’s their right to demonstrate”, and “I’m neither for nor against”, she stressed.
In the speech he read at the annual meeting of the International Association of Students of Economics and Commercial Sciences, in Maputo, the former statesman highlighted the importance of creating opportunities to capitalize on the potential of young people, but challenged this layer to be creative and innovative to May your destiny not be dictated by others. “Of course we can say be careful there, because we have also tried to do this and it went wrong, but we are not the ones to say what initiative” should be implemented by young people, he said.
The streets of some Mozambican cities, including Maputo, have been taken over by consecutive opposition demonstrations dubbed as a “repudiation” of the “fraud” in the process involving the local elections on October 11th and the results announced by the National Elections Commission (CNE) , which attributed victory to the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo, in power) in 64 of the country’s 65 municipalities, and which have been criticized by opposition parties.
The Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), which in the previous 53 municipalities (12 new municipalities were created this year) led in eight, was left without any municipality, despite claiming victory in the country’s largest cities, citing the original minutes and notices of the assemblies of vote. Renamo appealed to the Constitutional Council, the last instance of appeal in the electoral process.
