Mozambique: Anamola calls for separation of political parties from electoral bodies

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Mozambique: Anamola calls for separation of political parties from electoral bodies

2:01 CAT | 08 Oct 2025

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Aliança Nacional Para Um Moçambique Livre e Autónomo/Facebook ]

The National Alliance for a Free and Autonomous Mozambique (Anamola), the political party set up by former presidential candidate Venancio Mondlane, is proposing a sweeping overhaul of the country’s election system, including a complete separation between the political parties and the election management bodies.

Currently the National Elections Committee (CNE) and its executive arm, the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE) are dominated by appointees of the three parties represented in parliament – the ruling Frelimo Party, the former rebel movement Renamo, and the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM).

Anamola wants a CNE without any political party representatives at all. In a document submitted to the current “Inclusive National Dialogue”, Anamola suggest reducing the size of the CNE from 18 to 11 members, and changing its name to Independent Election Commission (CEI).

The chairperson of the CEI would be elected by the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic. The other ten members would all be elected from legal bodies – three from the Higher Council of the Judicial Magistrature, three from the Higher Council of the Administrative Magistrature, three from the Higher Council of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, and one from the Jurisdictional Council of the Mozambique Bar Association.

All these elections would be by a 75 per cent majority, intended to ensure consensus.

Anamola proposes completely eliminating the provincial and district elections commissions. These bodies have long been regarded as parasitic, and simply a manner of providing jobs for political appointees.

The tasks currently entrusted to these commissions could easily be handled by the provincial and district branches of STAE.

All STAE agents must be computer literate, since they must deal with the electronic counting of votes.

Anamola hopes to eliminate the interminable wait for election results. Its draft law declares that the CEI must announce the results within five days of the close of polls.

Anamola wants to scrap the Constitutional Council in its current form. The Council is supposed to be the country’s highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law, but it is deeply politicised. Five of its seven members are appointed by the parliamentary groups of the political parties, in proportion to the number of seats they hold. So the current Council has four members appointed by the Frelimo parliamentary group, and one by Renamo. Frelimo thus enjoys an absolute majority.

Anamola suggests a Council with nine members, eight from the Higher Councils of the various magistratures, and a chairperson elected by the Assembly of the Republic by a two thirds majority.

The district courts would deal with election disputes, and appeals against their decisions would go to the Supreme Court. Anamola calls this arrangement an Electoral Tribunal, although in fact its component parts already exist.

This would restrict the powers of the Constitutional Council to constitutional and budgetary matters.

READ: Anamola wants a new political system in Mozambique, with prime minister as head of government among other changes

Source: AIM