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Mozambique: Frelimo Calls for Postponement of Provincial Elections
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Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
17 October 2007
Posted to the web 17 October 2007
Maputo
Mozambique's ruling Frelimo Party has accepted that it is impossible to hold the country's first provincial elections in January, as scheduled, and is calling for their postponement.
According to a press release from the Frelimo headquarters, the party's Political Commission met in Maputo on Wednesday afternoon, and noted "that the general position of various sectors of Mozambican society, the religious bodies, the extra- parliamentary political parties, civil society organisations, journalists, academics and other forces, is that the provincial elections scheduled for 16 January should be postponed".
Faces with this feeling among the population, the Frelimo leadership has instructed the party's parliamentary group to submit an amendment to the constitution, so that the elections "may be postponed to a better opportunity".
Nonetheless, the Political Commission also urges all Frelimo members, and the public at large, to ensure that they register as voters with the 3,242 registration brigades currently operating throughout the country.
16 January is an inconvenient date for elections because it is in the middle of the rainy season. It is almost certain to be raining heavily somewhere in the country on that date, creating enormous logistical difficulties for taking electoral materials to and from the polling stations.
The date was chosen because of an article in the constitution which states that the first elections for provincial assemblies must be held within three years of the amended constitution taking effect. That was in mid-January 2005, and so the constitutional deadline for the elections is mid-January 2008.
But the country's parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, delayed for almost two years before passing new electoral laws, in December 2006. A further six months passed before the body in change of elections and of voter registration, the National Elections Commission (CNE), was established in June this year.
Although the CNE was warned that period between June and January was insufficient to organise elections properly, particularly since the entire Mozambican electorate had to be re-registered, it took an optimistic, can-do attitude, and pressed ahead.
The voter registration has shown how seriously the CNE overestimated its capacities. For in most of the country, the registration did not start on time, due to the late arrival of computers and other material. Even where the material was available, registration was extremely slow because the voter registration brigades had not received sufficient training in how to operate the machines.
Thus in the first 15 days of the 60 day registration exercise, only about 525,000 people were registered - which is a mere five per cent of the estimated potential electorate of 10.5 million.
The country thus risked going to the provincial elections with only two or three million people registered.
Frelimo, however, cannot amend the constitution on its own.
Normal constitutional amendments may only occur five years after the previous amendment. The Assembly of the Republic can, however, assume extraordinary powers of amendment before the five years are up - but only if 75 per cent of the deputies approve of this.
In short, to achieve this majority, both Frelimo and the opposition Renamo-Electoral Union coalition must be in favour of the amendment. But so far, Renamo has been insisting - in public, at any rate - on holding the elections in January.
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It remains to be seen if the poor registration plus the widespread opposition to January elections in Mozambican society will be enough to change Renamo's mind.
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| Copyright © 2007 Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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