Maputo — The Labour Party (PT) on Wednesday became the first Mozambican party to register at the National Elections Commission (CNE) in order to participate in the municipal elections scheduled for 19 November.

The PT is a small organisation which, despite its name, has no links with the Mozambican labour movement. In the 2004 parliamentary elections it stood on a platform of restoring the death penalty, and won the grand total of 14,242 votes - or 0.47 per cent of the total.

In the 2003 municipal elections, the PT ran candidates for 11 of the 33 municipal assemblies and did not win a single seat. Its best result was in the town of Manhica, in Maputo province, where it took 7.1 per cent of the vote.

The party's general secretary, Miguel Mabote, told reporters that this time too the PT will only stand for the municipal assemblies, and will not run candidates for mayor of any of the municipalities. The party had not yet decided how many municipalities it would contest.

All candidates must submit their nomination papers to the CNE by 5 September. To do so, they need a certificate from the local authorities proving that they have lived in the municipality for at least six months. But Mabote complained that neighbourhood secretaries and block chiefs are demanding payment for these certificates - even though the electoral law states clear that documents needed for electoral purposes are free of charge.

"This is a political problem", said Mabote. "The Ministries of Justice and of State Administration should solve this problem".