MOZAMBIQUE: Election process is being questioned
JOHANNESBURG, 14 Oct 2003 (IRIN) - The run-up to Mozambique's municipal elections, scheduled for 19 November, has been plagued by problems relating to the registration of candidates and the establishment of a statutory body to supervise the conduct of the polls.
The official news agency, Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (AIM), quoted the chairman of the Legal Affairs Commission of parliament, Aly Dauto, as saying that a Constitutional Council - the statutory body meant to supervise elections - had still not been established.
"It would be ideal for the Constitutional Council to be already functioning. There are complaints from some parties as to how their candidatures for the local elections have been handled, and it is within the powers of the Constitutional Council to deal with this," AIM quoted him as saying on Monday.
Dauto told reporters he believed it was possible that the Constitutional Council could be operational by the time the municipal elections were held.
Mozambique's constitution makes provision for the establishment of the council, which would also rule on whether legislative and statutory acts of state bodies were constitutional.
The Supreme Court has discharged these duties for the past 13 years as the Council has not been set up, mainly due to differing legal interpretations of the constitutional provisions relating to the establishment of the body.
The council is to consist of three people chosen by the national assembly - the division of seats ensuring that two would be selected by the ruling Frelimo Party and one by the opposition Renamo-Electoral Union - one nominee of President Joaquim Chissano, and a fifth member to be chosen by the other four.
Meanwhile, there has been concern over the registration of candidates for the November poll.
The National Election Commission (CNE) told journalists at a briefing on Friday that of the 94 mayoral candidates, only 33 from Frelimo had presented nomination papers free of any irregularities.
The 61 other candidate nomination papers contained errors or omissions, the most common of which involved supporting signatures. Candidates are supposed to present a list of supporters amounting to at least one percent of the municipal electorate, AIM reported.
Joe Hanlon, editor of the Mozambique Political Process Bulletin, noted reports that the CNE allowed Renamo to scrutinise its nomination papers so it could "correct some irregularities". Though "probably legal", the problem was that this had resulted in "excluding others" from an early opportunity to avoid being disqualified because of irregularities in nomination papers, he said in the latest bulletin.
The CNE admitted allowing Renamo to "send some people in to correct some irregularities", but said the law allowed for this.
Hanlon, however, said "it is clear that this privilege could not be given to just one party. And it seems obvious that any small party, which is excluded because its nomination papers were not corrected in time, would have a strong legal claim that Renamo had been given an extra week to make corrections when small parties were not".
"Whatever the outcome of such a challenge, small parties would feel strongly that they had been fraudulently denied the right to stand, and that local elections were just a carve-up by the two big parties," Hanlon commented.
"It seems hard to see how this can be resolved without giving the small parties extra time to make corrections, which would require a delay in the election date," he concluded.
The official news agency, Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (AIM), quoted the chairman of the Legal Affairs Commission of parliament, Aly Dauto, as saying that a Constitutional Council - the statutory body meant to supervise elections - had still not been established.
"It would be ideal for the Constitutional Council to be already functioning. There are complaints from some parties as to how their candidatures for the local elections have been handled, and it is within the powers of the Constitutional Council to deal with this," AIM quoted him as saying on Monday.
Dauto told reporters he believed it was possible that the Constitutional Council could be operational by the time the municipal elections were held.
Mozambique's constitution makes provision for the establishment of the council, which would also rule on whether legislative and statutory acts of state bodies were constitutional.
The Supreme Court has discharged these duties for the past 13 years as the Council has not been set up, mainly due to differing legal interpretations of the constitutional provisions relating to the establishment of the body.
The council is to consist of three people chosen by the national assembly - the division of seats ensuring that two would be selected by the ruling Frelimo Party and one by the opposition Renamo-Electoral Union - one nominee of President Joaquim Chissano, and a fifth member to be chosen by the other four.
Meanwhile, there has been concern over the registration of candidates for the November poll.
The National Election Commission (CNE) told journalists at a briefing on Friday that of the 94 mayoral candidates, only 33 from Frelimo had presented nomination papers free of any irregularities.
The 61 other candidate nomination papers contained errors or omissions, the most common of which involved supporting signatures. Candidates are supposed to present a list of supporters amounting to at least one percent of the municipal electorate, AIM reported.
Joe Hanlon, editor of the Mozambique Political Process Bulletin, noted reports that the CNE allowed Renamo to scrutinise its nomination papers so it could "correct some irregularities". Though "probably legal", the problem was that this had resulted in "excluding others" from an early opportunity to avoid being disqualified because of irregularities in nomination papers, he said in the latest bulletin.
The CNE admitted allowing Renamo to "send some people in to correct some irregularities", but said the law allowed for this.
Hanlon, however, said "it is clear that this privilege could not be given to just one party. And it seems obvious that any small party, which is excluded because its nomination papers were not corrected in time, would have a strong legal claim that Renamo had been given an extra week to make corrections when small parties were not".
"Whatever the outcome of such a challenge, small parties would feel strongly that they had been fraudulently denied the right to stand, and that local elections were just a carve-up by the two big parties," Hanlon commented.
"It seems hard to see how this can be resolved without giving the small parties extra time to make corrections, which would require a delay in the election date," he concluded.
publicado por MP às 01:12
