District Elections: Postponement opinion reflects the whole country’s opinion – govt

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District Elections: Postponement opinion reflects the whole country’s opinion – govt

4:06 CAT | 02 May 2023

Photo: Jornal Moçambique

Mozambique’s Minister of Justice said on Friday that the results of the Commission created to assess the viability of district elections (CRED) reflect the opinion of the “whole country”, adding that there are no funds to hold the ballot in 2024.

“The report presented by the Commission not only reflects the perception of the members of the Commission, but also the contributions gathered via consultations they made throughout the country […] All sensitivities were heard,” Minister Helena Kida told a press conference in Maputo.

“Mozambique does not have enough resources to guarantee the expansion of the decentralisation model to the districts,” Minister Kida said, adding that the first district elections should take place “as soon as the conditions are created for their realisation”.

READ: Commission on District Elections’ document defends postponement | Mozambique

The CRED conclusions delivered to the government reiterate the need for a prompt revision of the Constitution to accommodate the postponement of the first district elections, given that the vote, agreed within the scope of the peace between the Government and Renamo in 2018, results from a change to the constitution that year.

The document also warns that there are risks of non-alignment between the legal decentralisation package and the constitution, as is currently the case with provincial representative bodies enjoying powers that exceed their competence.

The CRED indicates that the experience in the provinces has been marked by duplication and overlapping of competences and structures, lack of harmonisation between laws, and lack of clarity and criteria for sharing material and human resources.

The study points to a risk of a similar duplication of structures and competences at the district level, which would necessarily lead to a significant increase in the financial cost of the new bodies.

The introduction of district elections from 2024 onwards for the administration of the 154 districts, currently appointed by the central government, is part of the Peace and National Reconciliation Agreement signed in August, 2019, between the Frelimo government and the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), which maintains an ‘armed wing’ currently being disbanded under the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) process.

Renamo and the Mozambican Democratic Movement (MDM) say that the objective of Frelimo, in power, is to remove district elections from the Constitution without needing opposition votes, given that, from June onwards (five years after the amendment to the Constitution) it can do so with two-thirds of the votes of parliament, which Frelimo can already command.

Source: Lusa