Mozambique: CC calls for unified electoral code blocked by donors a decade ago – By Joseph Hanlon

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Mozambique: CC calls for unified electoral code blocked by donors a decade ago – By Joseph Hanlon

8:26 CAT | 10 Mar 2020

File photo: Sala da Paz

The cycle of revising a package of electoral laws every five years should be ended by adopting a single and permanent electoral code, the president of the Constitutional Council, Lucia Ribeiro, told a conference on 3 March. Changing various laws means they sometimes do not agree, which leads to contradictions, confusions and conflicts. (O Pais 4 Mar)

The CC has been calling for a single electoral code for many years. After the 2009 election there was a consensus that civil society should hold open hearings and propose an agreed code, which could avoid the interparty fights and delays that occurred in parliament (Assembleia da Republica, AR). Budget support donors were strongly opposed, arguing that writing a unified code would waste time and cause huge delays, and that individual law changes could be done within months.

The donors went on strike, withholding budget support for three months (January-March 2010) to force government to ignore the CC and civil society. Government capitulated, and it was left to the AR to rewrite individual laws. The battles between Renamo and Frelimo continued for five years, particularly over the composition of the National Elections Commission (CNE), and the war between Renamo and government resumed. Direct negotiations between Frelimo and Renamo outside parliament finally agreed to the politicisation of all electoral bodies – elections commissions, STAE (Secretariado Técnico de Administração Eleitoral), and polling station staff. (this newsletter 241, 12 Feb 2014) This agreement has caused major problems in all elections since.

Comment: Budget support is gone so donors no longer have the power to withhold it, so the CC call for a unified electoral code could be accepted. But times have changed in other ways, too. The electoral system is much more polarised and it would be much harder now to build the civil society and party informal agreement of 2009 to write a new code publicly. The present confused and politicised system was used to its advantage by Frelimo in the 2019 general elections. Would Frelimo be prepared to concede that total power it has over elections under the present law?

By Joseph Hanlon

Source: News reports & clippings