Mozambique: Chapo vows to appoint a Secretary of State for Arts and Culture
Mozambican parliament kicks off with fewer deputies and guests
2:15 CAT | 25 Mar 2020
Esperança Bias, addressing Parliament today. [Photo: Sala da Paz]
The first ordinary session of the new Mozambican parliament started today with only 160 out of the total 250 deputies present, Sala da Paz reports, adding that the 90 absent deputies presented duly justified reasons.
In addition to their being fewer deputies, and to mitigate any possible contamination by the new coronavirus, the session also provided for a reduced number of guests, and only journalists from the public channel Television of Mozambique (TVM) attending.
A set of measures in effect across the country since Monday includes the suspension of activities involving more than 50 people, parliament excepted.
Lusa cites Mozambican Liberation Front (Frelimo) parliamentary spokesman Jacinto Cipola as saying that the ruling party, would waive 50 to 60 deputies to allow a minimum of one metre of separation between members.
The waiver means the largest parliamentary bench in the Assembly of the Republic fielded only between 124 to 134 of its total 184 deputies.
Arnaldo Chalaua, spokesman for the main opposition party, the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), said that Renamo would deploy all its 60 deputies until the Permanent Commission of the HR takes action in the area of Covid-19 prevention.
Fernando Bismarque, spokesman for the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM), the third-largest political party in Mozanbique, said that all six MDM deputies would be present at the session, but all possible effort would be made to ensure that parliamentary business took the least possible time.
On Monday, a spokesperson for the Speaker, Oriel Chemane, told a press conference that the only guests at the session that began today would be five members of the government – including Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosário – the presidents of the Supreme, Administrative and Constitutional Courts, the Attorney General, the Ombudsman, the Dean of Foreign Ambassadors and three more representatives from each of the three political parties with parliamentary seats.
The first day of the first session is dedicated to the inaugural speeches by the President of the Assembly of the Republic, [Speaker] Esperança Bias, and by the chief whips of the three parliamentary benches, as well as the approval of the agenda for the works.
The session will run until May 29, with the expected approval of the government’s Five Year Programme (PQG), the Economic and Social Plan (PES) and the State Budget (OE) for 2020 on the agenda.
The three documents are among the 20 points on the agenda of the first ordinary session of the new legislature of the Mozambican parliament.
Business will be concluded with question and answer sessions involving the government and deputies and announcements from the executive.
The PQG, PES and OE 2020 will be the first documents to be submitted to the Assembly of the Republic by the new Frelimo government, which resulted from the general elections of October 15 last year.
Frelimo holds 184 out of the 250 parliamentary seats (73.6%), against 60 seats for Renamo and six for MDM.
The new parliamentary legislature will be the ninth since the country’s independence in 1975.
Source: Lusa
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