CNE members block appointment of Grachane – CIP Mozambique Elections

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CNE members block appointment of Grachane – CIP Mozambique Elections

3:50 CAT | 12 Dec 2022

in file CoM

CNE members block appointment of Grachane

Members of the CNE have blocked José Grachane, on the grounds that they would not be able to share a working environment with someone who fought against them, and who still has an appeal awaiting a decision from the Administrative Tribunal (TA).

Some CNE members say that the appointment of Grachane by Frelimo, following the attempts to impose a General Director of STAE, is clear evidence that the Party wants the STAE leadership not to be independent, but to be controlled by Frelimo.

Everything indicates that Frelimo will give up insisting on Grachane, but by Friday the party had not yet gone to collect the note rejecting Grachane by the members of the CNE. We have learnt that the President of Frelimo, Filipe Nyusi, was put on the sidelines of these changes, and did not like the fact that he was not consulted.

Grachane should have been presented at Thursday’s plenary session, but this was not possible because his appointment was blocked during the meeting. Levieque had already bid farewell to his colleagues.

The arguments of the CNE members

To support their argument that the conditions do not exist to work alongside him, the members of the National Elections Commission (CNE) recalled some of Grachane’s arguments in his letter contesting the results of the election of Loló Correia to the post of General Director of the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE). In that letter, José Grachane wrote the following: “Without wishing to diminish the qualities of the other candidates, the petitioner (himself) has been a member of the public administration for 28 years, in the information systems career, with a master’s degree. He has been a member of the CNE for more than 10 years. He has complete mastery of the electoral legislation, and coordinated the Electoral Organisation and Operations Commission. He has full knowledge of how the electoral bodies operate, as well as of the treatment of election data. In its assessment, the jury should at least value these aspects.”

He added: “Hence, the petitioner believes that it is on the basis of the score from assessing these aspects that the jury should examine the winning candidate (in this case Loló Correia)”.

For the CNE members, this argument of Grachane shows that he thinks he has a better profile than the current general director. Thus, including him as the Second Assistant General Director of STAE would undermine the working environment, not only with the members of the CNE, but also with the general director of STAE (Grachane’s letter).

Furthermore, the CNE members allege that the appointment of Grachane by Frelimo is clear evidence that he ran for the post of general director of STAE as “a political expedient of the ruling party” and not as an independent, as is required.

The CNE members also argue that they see no reason for replacing the assistant director, Agostinho Levieque, on the eve of elections. They point out that Agostinho Lavieque never faced any disciplinary proceedings and never displayed any bad behaviour. Nonetheless, the CNE members are willing to accept the appointment of a new assistant general director of STAE by Frelimo, as long as it is not José Grachane.

The position of the National Elections Commission shows that this body has been seeking to obtain greater credibility by rejecting political interference.

Source: CIP Mozambique Elections