Constitutional Council rejects Venancio Mondlane – Renamo can appeal, but does it have time? – By Joseph Hanlon

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Constitutional Council rejects Venancio Mondlane – Renamo can appeal, but does it have time? – By Joseph Hanlon

5:28 CAT | 04 Sep 2018

File photo: Renamo Cidade de Maputo / Facebook

Venancio Mondlane will not head the list (and thus be candidate for mayor) for Renamo in Maputo in 10 October elections. The Constitutional Council (CC) today rejected Renamo’s appeal against the National Elections Commission (CNE) rejection of Mondlane’s candidacy. Mondlane resigned from his seat in the Maputo municipal assembly when he was elected to the national parliament in 2014, and the law does not allow someone to stand for municipal assembly if they resigned during the previous term. The CC decision is HERE.

The Renamo appeal and CC decision were both unusual. Renamo asked for the electoral law to be declared unconstitutional, and did not challenge the actual CNE decision. And in what is a far-reaching ruling, the CC said that neither a party (Renamo) nor an individual (Mondlane) has the right to challenges the constitutionality of a law. The CC cited the constitution which says the only people who can ask the CC to declare a law unconstitutional are a) the president, b) the speaker of parliament, c) one-third of he members of parliament, d) the prime minister, e) the attorney general, f) the ombud, or g) 2000 citizens. Renamo has more than one-third of MPs so they could return to the CC, but there is little time before the elections.

The decision was unanimous, including Manuel Frank, a judge named to the CC by Renamo.

Lawyers were surprised at both the ruling and the Renamo appeal. The “constitutional” council is the most senior court, yet is has effectively ruled it does not have the power to declare a law unconstitutional unless the request is brought by one of seven people or groups, while some lawyers argue it does have that power. And Renamo might have had grounds to challenge the actual CNE decision, including claiming the new law did not apply and that being elected to the national parliament meant Mondlane had to leave the municipal assembly and thus was not a “resignation”.

The rejection of Mondlane’s candidacy resulted from a challenge by MDM. He was elected to municipal assembly in 2013 and parliament in 2014 for MDM, but abandoned MDM and was attempting to stand as head of the Renamo list this year.

With the removal of Mondlane as head of list, the second on the list, general Herminio de Morais, becomes head of list and mayoral candidate. Morais is an administrator at the state oil company Petromoc.

Police launched teargas this morning (Tuesday 4 September) in Maputo city against supporters of Venancio Mondlane, according to Renamo press spokesperson in Maputo, Gilberto Chiridza.

By Joseph Hanlon

Source: Mozambique Political Process Bulletin