Mozambique: Mondlane files appeal over delay in legalizing his political party

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Mozambique: Mondlane files appeal over delay in legalizing his political party

2:23 CAT | 07 Jul 2025

File photo: Lusa

Former Mozambican presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane said last Friday (04-07) that the Ministry of Justice has exceeded the legal deadline for assessing his party’s registration request, and has therefore submitted an appeal to the national Constitutional Council.

“Today, July 4, we submitted an appeal to the Constitutional Council,” Venâncio Mondlane wrote on his official Facebook account.

According to the former presidential candidate, the Ministry of Justice did not assess, “within the legal deadline,” the registration request of the National Alliance for a Free and Autonomous Mozambique (Anamalala) party, announced in April.

On June 20, the Mozambican Ministry of Justice stated that the process of legalizing the party that former presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane intends to create is underway and within the deadline, and was awaiting the required changes to the acronym proposed.

“It is underway. The recommendations have been made and I believe we are within the deadline and the party will submit the changes for consideration by the ministry,” Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice, Constitutional and Religious Affairs, Justino Ernesto Tonela, said when questioned by Lusa on the sidelines of the seminar to launch the consultation and data collection process for the preparation of the Universal Periodic Review Mechanism Report.

In a letter from the ministry, signed by Minister Mateus Saíze, dated 28 May, on which Lusa previously reported, it is stated that the term “Anamalala”, the proposed acronym for the National Alliance for a Free and Autonomous Mozambique, comes from the Macua language, spoken in Nampula, in the north of the country, “and therefore already carries a linguistic meaning for the communication of those who express themselves in it”.

The ministry gave a deadline of 30 days to change the acronym, counting from the publication of that document by the Mozambican justice institution.

Anamalala means “it’s going to end” or “it’s over”, an expression used by Venâncio Mondlane during the campaign for the general elections of October 9, 2024 and which became popular during the protests he called in the following months, when he did not recognize the results of the vote.

The ruling adds that the statutes of the party that Venâncio Mondlane intends to create “do not fit into the concept of principles and are not aligned” with the Constitution of the Republic or the Law of Political Parties, also requesting their correction.

The document thus acknowledges that “some irregularities were found that prevent the authorization of the request for creation before they are regularized” by the end of this month, such as “adapting the acronym, as it does not derive from the name of the proposed party”.

The Minister of Justice met on June 9 in Maputo with a delegation from the former presidential candidate to assess the process of legalizing the political force, as per a request submitted to that ministry on April 3.

Mozambique has experienced a climate of strong social unrest since the October elections, with demonstrations and strikes called by Mondlane, who rejects the election results that gave victory to Daniel Chapo, supported by Frelimo, the ruling party.

According to non-governmental organizations that monitor the electoral process, around 400 people lost their lives as a result of clashes with the police, conflicts that ceased after a meeting between Mondlane and Chapo on March 23, repeated on May 20, with a view to pacifying the country.

Source: Lusa