Mozambique: Parliament takes local elections off agenda for next session

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Mozambique: Parliament takes local elections off agenda for next session

6:01 CAT | 11 Feb 2023

File photo: TVM

Mozambique’s parliament has withdrawn the item on the election of district assemblies from the agenda of the next plenary session, a matter that was on the agenda released earlier, but which is out of the final version, published in the government gazette.

A parliamentary source told Lusa that the matter was withdrawn in one of the last stages of the standing committee meetings, after a first version of the agenda had been disclosed at a press conference.

The holding of the first district elections in Mozambique, scheduled for 2024, has been a matter of disagreement between the president of the country, Filipe Nyusi, and the opposition.

READ: Mozambique: Parliament puts district elections, other matters

Filipe Nyusi advocates a reflection on the feasibility of the ballot, while the opposition believes that the elections result from an imperative of the Constitution of the Republic and a political agreement between the government and the opposition Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), and that there is nothing more to discuss on the subject.

The issue was the 25th item on the agenda of the seventh ordinary session of parliament, which starts on 22 February.

On the list of matters published in the government gazette, the 25th item is on the “report on the state of implementation of the government for the year 2022”.

The debate on the institutional framework of the districts, which was also part of the agenda initially published, has also been removed.

The Mozambican non-governmental organisation (NGO) Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) has already reacted, in a statement, saying that the exclusion of the bills “is just the first sign that the country’s highest legislative body may be being dragged into enabling Filipe Nyusi’s political agenda of halting the holding of district elections in 2024.

If held, the elections would allow district administrators to be chosen by voters during general elections, instead of being appointed by the minister responsible for local administration, as has been the case until now.

On the parliamentary agenda released in the government’s official gazette, the proposed laws on media and broadcasting, on promotion and protection of the disabled and on non-profit organisations, among others, remain on the agenda.

MPs will also debate the draft law creating the Sovereign Wealth Fund.

The next plenary session of parliament starts on 22 and ends at the end of May.

The Mozambican parliament is controlled by the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), with a qualified majority of 184 out of 250 deputies, followed by the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), with 60 seats, and the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), with six seats.

Source: Lusa