Good afternoon. President Filipe Nyusi may have had a “calm” conversation with opposition presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane this week (see below), but among sources close to the government, hopes are fading that he will engineer a last-minute compromise before the Constitutional Council confirms the results of October's disputed elections on Monday.
As we reported yesterday, the council is expected to uphold the official results giving victory to ruling party Frelimo and its presidential candidate Daniel Chapo, something likely to enrage Mondlane’s supporters and lead to more violence on the streets. That is why some kind of deal between the government and opposition, even a temporary one, is so desirable. Today’s issue of newspaper Savana sums up the situation well with a crude cartoon of Mondlane tossing a cartoon bomb with a lit fuse into the hands of Lúcia Ribeiro, the president of the Constitutional Council.
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The word is that Nyusi thinks that he has done what he can, and that since he is about to leave office, he does not have the authority to negotiate with Mondlane. The sources could yet be wrong, but there are no signs that a breakthrough is imminent. Meanwhile, Chapo and his team have shown no signs of wanting to intervene.
