Venâncio Mondlane presents his election manifesto – The Truth

Independent candidate for President of the Republic, Venâncio Mondlane, participated on Tuesday 13 August in the second meeting of the “Dialogue with the Candidates” initiative, held at the Polytechnic University amphitheatre, where he presented the guidelines for his manifesto if he deserves the trust of Mozambicans in the October 9 elections.

The candidates chose the reform of the state and governance as the priority pillars of their manifesto, focusing on reducing the powers of the President of the Republic, reforming the judiciary, budgetary decentralization and fiscal policy, and the autonomy of the judiciary from budget execution.

“The excessive power of the President of the Republic is almost imperialist, monarchical. I think everyone is talking about it. Regarding budget decentralization and fiscal policy, we intend to have about 60 to 70 percent of taxes collected by the Mozambique Revenue Authority collected and managed locally in the provinces and regions to promote their development,” he explained.

Regarding these three powers, Venâncio Mondlane argues that “the executive power has a certain advantage over the other powers (legislative and judicial), which requires its autonomy, especially with regard to the budgetary execution of the courts”.

Another pillar highlighted in Venâncio Mondlane’s speech was defence and security, mainly due to the terrorism that plagues the province of Cabo Delgado. “For us, there are three important measures. We believe it is necessary to identify the leaders and mediators of this conflict, to understand the list of demands of the terrorists and to accept or launch a dialogue/negotiation plan”.

“It is necessary to integrate our defence and security forces into those abroad that are said to be better prepared, in order to transfer knowledge and technology. Finally, the modernisation of the Mozambican Armed Defence Forces and the reorganisation of the intelligence and police services. I believe that with these measures we can find a medium- and long-term solution to problems such as terrorism, kidnapping, abduction, drug trafficking, child prostitution and other evils,” he concluded.

Mondlane’s declaration has six pillars, namely state and governance reform, human and social development, sustainable economic development, peace, harmony, national reconciliation, defense of sovereignty, modernization, security public relations and the fight against organized crime and external relations.

On this occasion, the Rector of the Polytechnic University, Narciso Matos, expressed satisfaction with the level of participation in the dialogue sessions with candidates, which provided an opportunity for those aspiring to the position to present their manifestos and ideas: “We are happy to welcome this session, the second of its kind. We see the University as a space where all skin colors, ideas and political ambitions have a place.”