16 November 2007
Maputo — The Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Friday amended the country's constitution in order to allow postponement of the country's first elections to provincial assemblies.
The new constitution, adopted by the Assembly in November 2004, stated that the provincial elections must be held within three years of the constitution taking effect. Since this was in mid- January 2005, the constitutional deadline for holding the elections was mid-January 2008.
But the Assembly delayed for two years before passing amended electoral legislation in December 2006, and a new National Elections Commission (CNE) was not in place until June of this year.
Rather than make the suggestion for a constitutional amendment itself, the CNE boasted that it would be able to re-register the entire Mozambican electorate and organise the provincial elections in little more than six months. The CNE proposed to President Armando Guebuza the date of 16 January for the elections, and, within the limits of the constitution, Guebuza had little choice but to accept.
This date meant holding elections in the middle of the rainy season, with all the logistical nightmares that implies, and running an election campaign over the Xmas and New Year holidays.
But what completely ruined any hope of a January election was the chaotic mismanagement of voter registration. The CNE decided to move into the digital age, and computerise the registration. But there was not enough time to do this properly: and so, when registration began, on 24 September, the vast majority of registration brigades did not possess the computers and other equipment needed for their task.
Computers did trickle into the country from the South African supplier, but many of the poorly trained brigades were unable to use them properly, and continual breakdowns were reported.
Faced with a rising tide of public protest, the ruling Frelimo Party concluded that January elections were impossible, and eventually the opposition Renamo-Electoral Union coalition agreed.
But under normal circumstances, the Constitution should not be amended for at least five years - i.e. until 2009. However, the Constitution did allow the Assembly to grant itself "extraordinary powers of amendment", if 75 per cent of deputies voted for this.
The assumption of these extraordinary powers was passed unanimously last week, and the resolution to that effect was published immediately in the official gazette, the "Boletim da Republica".
This allowed the Assembly on Friday to vote unanimously to change the article in the constitution on the time frame for the provincial elections. The simple amendment means that the elections must now be held "by 2009".
The exact date must be proposed by the CNE to Guebuza. In theory, the elections could be held some time in mid or late 2008 (Renamo's preferred solution), but it is much more likely that the CNE will choose the cheapest option - which is to hold the provincial elections at the same time as the next presidential and parliamentary elections in late 2009.
Speaking in favour of the amendment, the head of the Frelimo parliamentary group, Manuel Tome, declared "the moment demands from each and every one of us a high sense of patriotism, and a capacity to know how to interpret correctly the desires of our people".
His Renamo opposite number, Maria Moreno, stressed that the constitutional amendment would allow the elections to be held in the dry season, and to correct all the mistakes that had marred the voter registration.
She added that there would now be time "to make all those involved aware that registration is for all citizens of voting age, and not just those of one particular political colour".
Furthermore, everybody involved should understand that political party monitors "have the right and duty to inspect, and so their presence at the registrations posts is always permitted" (Renamo has repeatedly complained that its monitors have not been allowed to inspect closely the work of the registration brigades).
With unanimity guaranteed before hand, there was no debate, and the constitutional amendment passed with all 226 deputies present voting in favour.
The Assembly also passed unanimously a resolution recommending that the electoral bodies "continue the work of the re- registration of the electorate and the other actions inherent to the elections".
Since the CNE, and its executive body, the Election Administration Technical Administration (STAE), have made it abundantly clear that they intend to continue the registration, this resolution seems entirely redundant.
It contains no suggestions for dates, and is thus not an instruction to carry on registering voters beyond the current deadline of 22 November.
There must be further registration in 2008 in any case. Thus the CNE could stop registration on 22 November, even if it has only registered a minority of the potential electorate (calculated at 10.5 million by STAE), and resume in the dry season of 2008.
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