Maputo — The Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Wednesday passed the first reading of a government bill abolishing the requirement, contained in the law on municipalities, that fifty per cent of the members of municipal councils must be drawn from members of the elected municipal assemblies.

Introducing the very short amendment, Justice Minister Benvinda Levy said that, bearing in mind the experience of ten years of municipalisation, it was now clear that mayors should have the freedom to choose municipal councillors who are both politically and technically capable of handling their portfolios, without the imposition that half of them should be assembly members.

This clause in the law is a serious problem for small municipalities, where the assemblies only contain 13 members. There is no guarantee that the mayor can find among such a small pool of talent people with the skills required to deal with questions of town planning, public health or municipal finances.

Undoubtedly, the person who will benefit most from this change is the mayor of Beira, Daviz Simango. After his expulsion from the main opposition party, Renamo, last September, Simango was re-elected mayor as an independent in the 19 November municipal elections.

But Simango did not have time to put together a slate to run for the municipal assembly. As a result, he faces a largely hostile assembly (although he still has some supporters on the Renamo benches). The amendment to the municipality law means that Simango can now choose anyone in Beira he likes as a councillor, and will not have to depend on his political opponents for half his government.

The bill passed with 144 deputies from the ruling Frelimo Party voting in favour, while the 63 Renamo deputies in the chamber abstained.

Renamo's complaint was not with the substance of the bill at all. They alleged that the written opinion from the Assembly's specialized commissions did not adequately reflect the position of the Renamo minority on the commissions, and was thus illegal.

The Assembly's Standing Orders state that no bill can be discussed by the parliamentary plenary until it has been inspected by the relevant commissions. The opinion given by the commission must reflect any divergent opinions within the commission.

In this case, the Legal Affairs Commission and the Commission on Agriculture, Regional Development and Local Power produced a joint opinion. This noted that Renamo had wanted to add proposals concerning other articles in the municipalities law. In particular, they had wanted to change the way the way the boards of the municipalities are chosen. Instead of being elected as they are now, they would simply be appointed by the political parties.

Renamo objected to this summary, and instead demanded that the Commissions' opinion put in its position, word for word. Renamo deputies raised this as a "prior question", arguing that the government bill should not be discussed until a new opinion from the Commissions, more to their liking, was produced.

Most Renamo members of the Commissions had refused to sign the opinion - but Assembly chairperson Eduardo Mulembue pointed out that this did not affect their validity. A Commission opinion is a valid document if signed by more than half the Commission's members, and the Frelimo majority easily secured that. The Renamo boycott was not total: two Renamo members of the Legal Affairs Commission did sign the opinion.

Frelimo deputy Acucena Duarte pointed out that a week earlier the Assembly plenary had unanimously decided to discuss the government bill to change just one article in the law on municipalities. The problem Renamo had raised was a problem inside the commissions, and should not be used to prevent Levy from presenting the bill.

"We are used to attempts to block the work of the Assembly, and we should not tolerate them", declared Duarte.

For Renamo, Luis Boavida said that the opinion was not a faithful reflection of discussions within the commission. The opinion "does not comply with the law", he claimed (the Assembly's standing orders have the force of law).

Jose Palaco dismissed the document as a "pseudo-opinion", and said "it gives comments on the Renamo position, not the position itself".

When Renamo's proposal to delay discussion on the bill until a new opinion was written was put to the vote, it was defeated by 146 to 65 with one abstention. By that time an entire hour had been lost.

The chairperson of the Agriculture and Local Power Commission, Alfredo Gamito, confirmed to AIM that Renamo's demands in the commission had nothing to do with the article in the law concerning the composition of municipal councils.

Instead the Renamo deputies had wanted to abolish the system whereby the boards of the municipal assemblies, formed by a chairperson, a deputy chairperson and a secretary, are elected by the full Assembly. Instead they wanted a chairperson appointed by the majority party, two deputy chairpersons (one from the majority party and one from the second most voted party), and a secretary, appointed by the third force, if there is one.

This looks like a way of ensuring that Renamo sits on the boards even in Assemblies where it only holds one seat. There are nine of these (and a further nine where Renamo did not win any seats at all).