NGO calls for approval of Mozambique’s new electoral law

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NGO calls for approval of Mozambique’s new electoral law

7:39 CAT | 19 Dec 2018

in file CoM

The Institute for Multiparty Democracy (IMD) has called for Parliament’s approval of the new Mozambican electoral law by February next year to allow implementation of the voting calendar and enable political parties to know the law.

“Electoral legislation should be approved in February at the risk of compromising the implementation of the electoral calendar, as happened in the revision of the local legislation,” suggests IMD.

For the first time, in 2019, in addition to the election of the President of the Republic and the parliament, the general elections will serve to elect the governors (through the vote to the provincial assemblies), which are no longer appointed by the central power.

The change is part of the agreements made between Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi and Afonso Dhlakama, former leader of the main opposition party, Renamo.

In the context of the peace negotiations, both agreed that the administrators will also be elected, “but only after 2024”.

The IMD argues that in the face of profound changes, there is a need to deposit the law in parliament “in a timely manner” in order to receive subsidies from the entire Mozambican society.

“If this does not happen in the coming days,” the IMD says, it can affect “the quality of the debate and the appreciation of the proposals by the parliament as well as the civil society concerned.”

It further believes that late adoption of the law may lead to political parties refraining from internal debates on the application requirements.

“The delay in the submission of electoral legislation limits the right of competitors to know the rules of the game in advance,” writes IMD.

In the ruling on the proclamation of the results of the municipal elections of 2018, the Constitutional Council said political actors were unaware of the (new) electoral law, it recalls.

The deadline for expressions of interest for political parties to contest the 2019 elections runs from May 20 to June 3, 2019, while the submission of candidates is expected to take place between June 8 and August 6, 2019, according to the NGO.

The laws in question concern the election of the members of the provincial assemblies and the organisation and functioning of the decentralised organs (at provincial and district level), as well as the representation of the State at all levels.

The next general elections in Mozambique are scheduled for October 15, 2019.

Source: Lusa