On Wednesday we’ll see the first elections take place since we arrived in Beira 4 years ago. It’s a public holiday and tensions are running high in the normally sleepy city of Beira. The local council has been governed for the last 4 years by Daviz Simango, a good man who has won a prize for improvements to the morgue alongside many other notable achievements. However, this year he has been ousted by the opposition party RENAMO and is running as an independent candidate.
The campaigning over the past 3 weeks has been interesting for us Brits who are used to suited gentlemen with rosettes and pamphlets knocking on our doors to politely canvas. The country’s main party FRELIMO, who lost to Simango last time round, have been using all the resources possible for their campaign!! Truckloads of people drinking, singing and shouting were toured around town to literally drum up support for their candidate Bulha. Youths marched or ran behind the FRELIMO flags. Prized t-shirts and caps were exchanged for promises of votes for candidates. Petrol stations gave free fuel to those waving the party flag, up to 20 Litres a day (we were a bit tempted!!). Sadly there has also been violence, 2 people shot dead for removing political posters and at least 7 people hospitalised, and these are the stories we have come to hear of as no negative aspects of FRELIMO’s campaign have been written about in the local press.
The UN
monitoring team will be deployed for the voting day but this will not account
for the voting cards which were being bought at the local market... too little,
too late. Please pray with us for a safe day on Wednesday, free from corruption
and intimidation, where people can exercise their legal right to vote.
In the local elections last week, the current city President Daviz Simango won by an overwhelming majority. We give thanks that there was no violence and limited corruption. Please pray for him as he leads Beira forward in his second term.
Posted by: Matt & Sheena Lock | November 28, 2008 at 05:07 PM