The leader of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo, opposition) said yesterday that the current President cannot run for a third term, stressing that the Constitution forbids this ambition and that the Mozambican people want political alternation.

"I can't be a witness to what [Filipe] Nyusi wants, what I have to defend is the Constitution of the Republic: every President must serve a maximum of two terms," Ossufo Momade told Lusa in an interview in Lisbon, where he was attending a meeting of the Democratic Institute of the Centre (IDC, an organization that brings together centre-right parties).

"All those who passed through there did two terms - Chissano, Guebuza - why is this one going to do three terms?" - questioned Momade, who was confident of a victory in the 2024 general elections.

The current President, Filipe Nyusi, won the 2014 and 2019 Mozambican presidential elections as the candidate of the ruling Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo).

"The problem is not the name [of the candidate], the problem is the regime. The problem is with the party-state," said Frelimo, which has taken over the country.

"The Mozambican people already know, it's a party that has been on the roadmap for over 40 years and we can't look for arguments. Enough is enough! Frelimo has already done what it had to do and we have to change things, because alternation is what Mozambicans want right now," added the Renamo leader.

Regarding the Demilitarization, Disarmament and Reintegration (DDR) process, negotiated in the peace agreements after the civil war, Momade also passes responsibility on to Frelimo.

"We've already done the maximum, we've demobilized 15 bases and 90% of our combatants are already in their homes. Now we demand that they fulfill what they promised the combatants, the projects and the pensions," he said, admitting that there are social risks with the presence of many ex-servicemen without adequate means of subsistence.

"Promises have been made, now what is missing is their materialization and that is the responsibility of the government and the international community," Momade stressed.

The president of Remano also commented on the instability in the north of the country, in the province of Cabo Delgado, which has been the scene of attacks by insurgents and Islamic extremists, a situation that has motivated the deployment of an international force on the ground: "We have to go back to the beginning of the situation, which was in 2017, and at that time there was already information" about social problems in the region, but "the government ignored the signs".

"We saw at the time that some districts were abandoned" by the central government, he said, giving examples such as Mocímboa da Praia, Palma or Macomia.

As for the future, Ossufo Momade advocated negotiations with the insurgents in order to withdraw public support for radical Islamic movements.

"We think that any conflict must end through dialogue," said the Renamo leader, advocating that the "population return to their areas of origin".

Regarding the possibility of holding elections in the region, Ossufo Momade was skeptical.

"I don't think there are any conditions," he said, giving the example of a recent attack in Muidumbe, despite promises of pacification.

"It's not possible for our candidate delegate, or the Electoral Commission itself, to go there," because there is "no security" in the region, he stressed.