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Afonso Dhlakama

MOZAMBIQUE swore in new lawmakers today during a ceremony boycotted by the main opposition party, which disputes the outcome of the October election and has threatened to declare a breakaway republic.President Armando Guebuza opened the new Parliament, which includes 144 deputies from his ruling Front for the Liberation of Mozambique, or Frelimo, and 89 from the opposition Mozambican National Resistance, or Renamo.

Afonso Dhlakama, head of Renamo, said at a weekend rally in the port city                                                                                                                      of

Beira that he would declare an autonomous republic comprising provinces where the party claims more support than Frelimo.

Dhlakama, the runner-up in every presidential vote since the southeast African country’s first democratic elections in 1994, identified the provinces of Sofala, Zambezia, Nampula, Manica, Tete and Niassa as his stronghold.

Renamo ended a 15-year civil war with Frelimo in 1992 with an agreement to take part in democratic politics. In 2012, it re-started a low-level insurgency that  ended in September last year, in time for the party to participate in provincial, parliamentary and presidential elections. Its members last week boycotted the investiture of provincial assemblies, preventing  the inauguration of those where it is the majority party.

Guebuza led the lawmakers in a moment’s silence to mark the death of at least 69 people in Tete province who drank poisoned home-brewed beer at a funeral. The government has declared three days of mourning for the victims.The authorities are collecting clothing, food and coffins for the bereaved families.

Guebuza will be replaced as head of state on January 15 by Filipe Nyusi, the Frelimo candidate in last year’s election. He is                              stepping down after serving the maximum two terms. — Bloomberg