The NGO Center for Democracy and Development (CDD) accuses the Mozambican government of creating a commission to assess the viability of the district elections with the aim of “legitimizing” the postponement of the poll.
In a press release released this Sunday (09.04), the non-governmental organization Center for Democracy and Development (CDD) accuses the Mozambican head of state, Filipe Nyusi, of “organizing” a “political expedient through which he intends to legitimize the postponement of the 2024 district elections”.
“Organization of the administrative machinery and economic and financial sustainability are the false arguments that the Government of Filipe Nyusi uses to prevent the right to elect their own leaders at local level, which the Constitution of the Republic enshrines for the millions of Mozambicans living in the 154 districts ”, says the NGO.
On Wednesday, the Mozambican Council of Ministers approved the creation of the commission to reflect on the pertinence of the district elections, an entity that will be composed of “people of recognized competence and experience in local governance and public finances”, informed the spokesman. voice of the Government, without providing further details or deadlines.
For the CDD, the Government’s decision does not make sense, as the Mozambican executive has not yet released the conclusions of a first assessment carried out by consultants on provincial decentralized governance and the prognosis for the district elections in 2024.
“In the short history of democratization in Mozambique, this is the first time that a President of the Republic enacts a law on a specific revision of the Constitution and, after almost five years, launches a commission to reflect on the pertinence of devices introduced within the scope of the same revision. ”, adds the CDD note.
constitutional review
The introduction of district elections from 2024 onwards for the administrators of the 154 districts, currently appointed by the central government, is part of the Peace and National Reconciliation Agreement signed in August 2019 between the FRELIMO Government and RENAMO, which maintains an “arm armed” and is in the process of Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR).
A possible postponement of the 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 which can also only be done five years after the entry into force of the previous revision law, which occurred in 2018.
The Mozambican parliament approved, just over a week ago, the change in the deadline for scheduling the general elections, with 164 votes from the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO), in a session marked by the boycott of the opposition, who sang, played ‘vuvuzelas’ and displayed posters to try to make the work unfeasible.
With the changes generally approved, the head of state must schedule the 2024 general elections 15 months in advance and not 18, that is, in July and not in April, as required by law.
FRELIMO, the party in power and with a qualified majority of 184 deputies, defended the changes with the need for more time to reflect on the feasibility of holding district elections, a poll that it has already considered “unfeasible”.
Renamo and the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM), which left parliament on the day of approval, say that Frelimo’s objective is to remove district elections from the Constitution without needing opposition votes, since from June (five years after the last amendment to the fundamental law) can do so with two-thirds of the votes of parliament – which it has.