Mozambique: Assembly ratifies judicial appointments – AIM report

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Mozambique: Assembly ratifies judicial appointments – AIM report

10:48 CAT | 11 Apr 2020

João Beirão and Lúcia Amaral. [Photo: Noticias]

The Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Thursday ratified the appointment of Lucia do Amaral as the presiding judge of the Administrative Tribunal, the body that supervises the legality of public expenditure.

It also ratified the appointment of Joao Beirao as deputy chairperson of the Supreme Court. Both appointments were made by President Filipe Nyusi in March.

The overwhelming majority enjoyed in the Assembly by the ruling Frelimo Party, ensured that both appointments were ratified. In the case of Amaral, the main opposition party, Renamo, opted for abstention.

Speaking on behalf of Frelimo, deputy Agostinho Gomes said that Lucia do Amaral is a career magistrate with long experience, and meets all the conditions required by law. There was thus no reason to object to the President’s choice.

But Renamo did not find Amaral’s previous performance, as an assistant attorney general, at all reassuring. Renamo deputy Antonio Muchanga said she was partly responsible for fraud in Mozambican elections that had benefitted Frelimo. He claimed that she was one of those who relaxed the procedures for investigating polling station staff who deliberately annulled votes cast for opposition parties.

For the second opposition party, the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), Fernando Bismarque called for an end to the current method of appointing senior figures in the judiciary. He argued that the Constitution should be amended so that the presidents of bodies such as the Supreme Court and the Administrative Tribunal “are elected by their peers, and not chosen on the basis of political confidence”.

The current model, he said, “undermines the credibility expected of a body such as the Administrative Tribunal, whose task is to guarantee the legality of administrative acts and supervise the public accounts”, at a time when “the country is captured by corruption and lack of transparency in the state business sector”.

In the secret ballot to ratify Amaral’s appointment, 176 deputies voted in favour, and ten against while 46 deposited blank ballots (equivalent to abstention).

The ratification of Beirao’s appointment enjoyed near unanimity. Of the 232 deputies present for this vote, 225 cast ballots in favour of Beirao, four voted against and three cast blank ballots.

Source: AIM