Former president of the Mozambican Constitutional Council criticizes partisanship of bodies

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Former president of the Mozambican Constitutional Council criticizes partisanship of bodies

12:15 CAT | 19 Jun 2025

File photo: O País

The former president of the Mozambican Constitutional Council (CC) Hermenegildo Gamito criticized the partisanship of the country’s electoral bodies, considering that “inclusion” could end crises after elections in Mozambique.

“These [electoral] bodies cannot be too partisan, the Government must be the expression of the will of the majority of the population”, said Hermenegildo Gamito, in an interview with the private channel STV, when asked about the credibility of institutions and elections in Mozambique.

For Gamito, the majority that assumes power “must be inclusive” and cannot exclude or disrespect the minority, a process that he considered could stop the conflicts characteristic of Mozambique after the elections.

“We have problems with inclusion and that is why, when the time comes for elections, there is great nervous tension (…). Our country, when it achieves real inclusion, will not have problems of this nature”, stated the former president of the CC at the end of each electoral period.

The last elections held in Mozambique were marked by the country’s worst post-electoral crisis since the first ballot in 1994, with violent clashes between the police and protesters, which resulted in hundreds of deaths and injuries, in addition to looting, vandalism and destruction of various infrastructures.

The former president of the Mozambican Constitutional Council also criticized corruption in the State by questioning the wealth of certain leaders, which does not match the salaries they receive, with “arithmetic calculations” and not “great mathematics” being enough to prove the disparity.

“The State must intervene (…). I joined the Constitutional Council, [for example], and when I leave there I already have the right to two buildings on the main Avenida de Moçambique, in Maputo, it cannot be (…) large-scale corruption then provokes small-scale corruption”, said the official, adding that corruption “shakes the foundations” of the Mozambican State.

Hermenegildo Gamito took over as president of the CC in 2011 and resigned from the position in June 2019 for “personal reasons and due to his age”.

The official resigned from the position two days after the CC considered the loans and sovereign guarantees granted by the State in favor of the state-owned company Ematum to be unconstitutional, but the former president ruled out, at the time, any connection between his departure and the decision.

Gamito was a member of the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), in power since 1975, and was a judge, member of parliament, manager of public companies, as well as a lawyer and businessman.

Source: Lusa