Mozambique: President reiterates call for “deep reflection” on feasibility of district elections

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Mozambique: President reiterates call for “deep reflection” on feasibility of district elections

2:20 CAT | 11 Aug 2022

Photo: Conselho Executivo Provincial de Nampula

Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi yesterday reaffirmed the need for “deep reflection” on the feasibility of the first district elections in the country, scheduled for 2024, noting that the process “should not create nightmares”.

“I reiterate the appeal we launched in May for political forces, civil society organisations and academia to deepen their reflection on the feasibility of district elections in 2024,” Filipe Nyusi said.

The head of state was speaking in Nampula, northern Mozambique, during the opening ceremony of the third national meeting on decentralisation in the country.

Filipe Nyusi wants the debate on district elections to be carried out “without prejudice, nor fixed or concluded ideas, and based on the experience of years of decentralised provincial governance”.

The Mozambican head of state clarified that he is not suggesting that the process be either advanced or interrupted, only saying that “misunderstandings and overlaps” related to the vote for district authorities “must be taken as part of a new process and must not create nightmares or frustrations”.

“I didn’t say don’t do it, I didn’t say do it, I said deepen [the debate around the elections]. It’s not forbidden to think in order to be able to better decide,” he stressed.

The Mozambican president also stated that the decentralisation process “is not an end, but a means to achieve the well-being of the populations”.

The election of members of district assemblies and administrators is part of the Peace and National Reconciliation Agreement signed in August, 2019, between the government of the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) and the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), the country’s main opposition party, which maintains an armed wing that is in the process of disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR).
Mozambique begins a new electoral cycle in 2023, with the holding of local elections, followed by presidential, legislative, provincial and possibly district elections in 2024.

According to the National Elections Commission (CNE), speaking in June this year, Mozambique needs 18.7 billion meticais (about €287 million) to cover the next electoral cycle.

Source: Lusa