Just In: Mozambique’s Constitutional Court definitively excludes CAD from the elections

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Just In: Mozambique’s Constitutional Court definitively excludes CAD from the elections

8:14 CAT | 01 Aug 2024

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: RTP]

The Constitutional Council (CC) of Mozambique this Thursday definitively excluded the Democratic Alliance Coalition (CAD), which supports the presidential candidacy of politician Venâncio Mondlane, from the general elections of October 9.

In the ruling released today, in response to the appeal filed by the CAD regarding the exclusion of the candidacy previously decided by the National Elections Commission (CNE), the CC declares null and void the CNE’s decision of May 9, which accepted the registration of the Democratic Alliance Coalition for electoral purposes.

In the decision, the CC considers that “the Democratic Alliance Coalition is not registered for electoral purposes, which consequently precludes the possibility or the right to present candidacies”.

The CAD is thus excluded from the legislative elections and elections for governors and provincial assemblies, but without affecting the presidential candidacy of Venâncio Mondlane, a former MP and former member of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo, the largest opposition party).

The CNE excluded the CAD from the general elections for not meeting the legal requirements, namely for irregularities in the registration of the coalition and the parties that form it, the electoral body announced on July 18. However, in the previous phase of the process, the CNE had accepted the registration of the CAD, with the exclusion having already occurred during the verification phase of the candidacies received.

However, the CC, in the deliberation released today, decided to annul the previous decision of the CNE, in which the registration of the CAD was accepted: “The Constitutional Council understands that the lack of communication to the state entity [Ministry of Justice] of the coalition constitutes an absolutely invalidating irregularity that can be alleged by any person, known at any time, at any stage and by any competent judicial or administrative authority”.

It also states that the parties that make up the CAD, “despite having submitted the agreement of 27 April 2024, could not, as they intended, be registered by the CNE in a coalition for electoral purposes, since the coalition did not legally exist to produce the intended effects”, given that it “was not registered”.

“It is true that the registration constitutes public proof that a given political party is in a coalition with others”, adds the ruling.

The president of the CAD, Manecas Daniel, promised last Saturday a “war” with “eggs and tomatoes” for the Mozambican people if that party is left out of the general elections in October, accusing the government of being “afraid”.

“I believe that the Mozambican people, with eggs and tomatoes, which are not weapons, will wage war and will win,” said Manecas Daniel, speaking to Lusa during the march to repudiate the exclusion decided by the CNE, which brought together hundreds of people on the streets of Maputo, while awaiting the result of the appeal filed with the CC to try to keep the CAD in the electoral race.

Manecas Daniel assured that the matter had been presented to the head of state, Filipe Nyusi, warning that it is not because “he took the last weapon from Renamo”, alluding to the disarmament process of the largest opposition party concluded in 2023, that he can “think that Mozambicans do not have weapons”.

“That they can abuse them, that they can step on them. I believe that this is not quite the case, the population can, at any time, with eggs and tomatoes, form a front, wage war and win the war”, he also said.

The CNE’s arguments, now validated by the CC, do not convince the CAD leader: “This is the fourth [general elections on October 9]. And in the same way, they have never demanded of us what they demand of us today. And even the elements that they tell us, endorsement [of the coalition] and others, we have complied with and sent to the CNE”.

For Manecas Daniel, this is a “political persecution”, explained by the CAD’s association with Venâncio Mondlane, who ran for the Maputo local government in October for Renamo and led dozens of street protests, with thousands of supporters, against the official results that gave victory in the capital to the Mozambique Liberation Front, the party in power since 1975.

“We registered without publicizing our relationship with the engineer Venâncio Mondlane, but when we presented the engineer Venâncio Mondlane’s candidacy [the CAD supports his candidacy for President], on June 10, that’s when the problem began. So, the problem is not with CAD, the problem is the fact that we are associated with the engineer Venâncio Mondlane”, he said.

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