Mozambique: Postponing district polls is coup against democracy – opposition

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique: Postponing district polls is coup against democracy – opposition

8:54 CAT | 11 Apr 2023

File photo: Lusa

The two opposition parties in Mozambique’s parliament on Monday demanded the revocation of the commission set up to assess the relevance of district elections, accusing the ruling party (Frelimo) of orchestrating a “gradual coup” to democracy to postpone the ballot.

“The elections were scheduled for October 2024, through the Constitution of the Republic, and we cannot accept that the Constitution be kicked to accommodate obscure interests of ill-intentioned people who want at all costs to stay in power,” Ismael Nhacucue, spokesman for the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), the third force with parliamentary seats, told Lusa.

The issue at stake is the approval on Wednesday of the creation of a commission to reflect on the relevance of district elections, which will be made up of “staff of recognised expertise and experience in local governance and public finances,” said government spokesman Filimão Suaze, without giving further details or deadlines.

According to the MDM, the intention of the ruling Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Frelimo) is to postpone the ballot “riding roughshod over” the law, considering that Frelimo “has no right to take away a constitutional right” from citizens.

“We cannot accept that Frelimo uses the qualified majority it has in parliament to distort the feelings of the Mozambican people. It is unacceptable and intolerable that a process that has been unanimously approved, today is being kicked off unilaterally by the Frelimo bench, because it holds the qualified majority,” Ismael Nhacucue said, pointing out that the head of state had not shared information about the commission with the opposition parties.

The main opposition party, Resistência Nacional Moçambicana (Renamo), also believes that the decree creating the commission that will reflect on the relevance of the district elections is part of an attempt to halt the ballot.

“The ultimate purpose of this commission is to legalise the decision already made public by the Frelimo party to deny the district elections and a vain attempt to override the constitution itself,” Renamo secretary general Clementina Francisco told the media.

Renamo also demands the revocation of the decree creating the commission, considering the ruling party’s position a “gradual blow” to democracy.

“The Renamo party and all of Mozambican society condemn and repudiate this attitude of dictatorship, tyranny of attempted coup d’état to the sovereignty of the people,” the Renamo secretary general stressed.

Lusa tried unsuccessfully to obtain a statement from the ruling party in Mozambique.

A possible postponement of district elections scheduled for 2024 would require a constitutional revision, which is only possible with the approval of a two-thirds majority of parliament and can also only be done five years after the previous revision law came into force, which occurred in 2018.

The Mozambican parliament approved, just over a week ago, the change in the deadline for scheduling general elections, with 164 votes from Frelimo, in a session marked by the opposition boycott, which chanted, played ‘vuvuzelas’ and displayed posters to try to make the work impossible.

The changes approved in general terms mean that the head of state must schedule the 2024 general elections 15 months in advance and not 18, i.e. in July and not April, as the law required.

Frelimo defended the changes with the need for more time for reflection on the feasibility of holding district elections, a ballot it already considered “unfeasible”.

Renamo and MDM, which walked out of parliament on the day of approval, say Frelimo’s aim is to remove district elections from the constitution without needing opposition votes, since from June (five years after the change to the fundamental law) it can do so with two-thirds of parliament’s votes – which it has.

The introduction of district elections from 2024 for the administrators of the 154 districts, currently appointed by central power, is part of the Peace and National Reconciliation Agreement signed in August 2019 between the Frelimo government and Renamo, which maintains an “armed wing” and is in the process of disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR).

Source: Lusa