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The Mozambican government announced on Tuesday that a mayoral by-election will be held in the northern city of Nampula, following the assassination of mayor Mahamudo Amurane on 4 October.
The Government spokesperson, Ana Comoana, the Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism, announced the decision to reporters at the end of the weekly meeting of the Council of Ministers (Cabinet).
She added that the government will notify the National Elections Commission (CNE) of its decision, and the CNE must then propose a date for the by-election.
In fact, the government had no choice but to hold a by-election. The law on municipalities states that, if a mayor dies, resigns or is otherwise permanently incapacitated, and his term of office still has a year or more to run, then a by-election must be held.
Although Amurane was elected on 1 December 2013, his term began when he was sworn into office in February 2014. Hence when he was murdered his term of office still had about 16 months to run.
This means that there will be two municipal elections in Nampula in the space of less than a year, since the next nationwide municipal elections (for both mayors and municipal assemblies) are scheduled for 15 October 2018.
Despite the impending by-election, the interim mayor of Nampula, Manuel Tocova, who is also chairperson of the Municipal Assembly, has been acting as though he has full mayoral powers, by sacking the councillors who had worked with Amurane, and appointing new ones, despite warnings against this by the Nampula provincial branch of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Asked about Tocova’s behaviour, Comoana said the central government was awaiting the decision of the Nampula prosecutors. In such matters the Public Prosecutor’s Office was the defender of legality, she stressed, and the government would simply accompany he decisions it took.
On Monday Tocova swore into office ten councillors and six heads of Nampula administrative posts. These appointees include some people whom Amurane had sacked for alleged acts of corruption.
Most of them are, like Tocova and Amurane, members of the opposition Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM).
Amurane was elected in 2013 on the MDM ticket and, despite his very public disagreements with the MDM leadership his year, he never resigned from the party.
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