Mozambique; Questioned Renamo candidate for Maputo mayor given OK – By Joseph Hanlon

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Mozambique; Questioned Renamo candidate for Maputo mayor given OK – By Joseph Hanlon

2:07 CAT | 17 Aug 2018

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Venâncio Mondlane, head of the Renamo list for Maputo city and thus candidate for mayor, was approved by the CNE late Tuesday night, in a CNE meeting that ran until 1 am.

Both the new and old electoral laws say that a person who formally withdraws from a municipal assembly cannot stand for the assembly in the subsequent election. Venâncio Mondlane was elected to Maputo assembly in 2013 for MDM, but was then elected to parliament for MDM in 2014 so had to resign his assembly seat. The head of the list for MDM in Matola, Silverio Ronguane, was similarly elected to parliament and thus was in the same position.

On the surface, it seemed obvious they were ineligible to stand this year. But details of the way the laws were passed raised questions and a debate in the media and between lawyers. Normally laws are revised and republished, which makes them continuous. Thus municipal elections law 7/2013 of 2013 was revised and republished as law 10/2014. But this year, when parliament approved the new municipal elections law 7/2018, it did not follow that normal procedure, and revoked law 10/2017 and published an entirely new law 7/2018 (with much of the old wording).

Some lawyers argued that the new law could not be applied to past actions – resigning in 2015 – while the law in effect at the time has been revoked and cannot be used, leaving a legal lacuna. Others argued the sense of both laws was to be continuous.

The CNE has to rule if candidates have the right to stand, and there was an extended debate on Tuesday. But the decision to allow Venâncio Mondlane to stand was at least partly to do with the reconciliation between Frelimo and Renamo in the context of trying to finalise a peace deal. Excluding the Renamo candidate would have cooled the relationship.

By Joseph Hanlon

Source: Mozambique Political Process Bulletin