Maputo — The Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Friday rejected attempts by the opposition Renamo-Electoral Union coalition to change the legislation governing presidential, parliamentary and provincial elections.

Renamo insisted on bringing these amendments to the plenary, despite their rejection by the Assembly's working commissions, and despite the fact that this year's general elections are only three months away.

Earlier this month three other Renamo electoral bills - to change the composition of the National Elections Commission (CNE), to alter voter registration procedures, and to change the rules governing municipal elections - were also rejected.

The Assembly's Legal Affairs Commission pointed out that there is already a request from Renamo before the Constitutional Council, the country's highest body on constitutional law, seeking to declare parts of the electoral legislation unconstitutional. It would therefore make more sense to wait for a ruling from the Council before attempting to rewrite the legislation. Despite this advice, Renamo insisted that a debate be held.

Deputies from the ruling Frelimo Party pointed out that some of the provisions in the Renamo amendments are covered by other legislation. Thus Renamo demanded that the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE), the electoral branch of the civil service, should train the polling station staff.

This is already an attribute of STAE, albeit in a different law (the one governing the composition and powers of the CNE and its subordinate bodies).

Renamo also demanded the right to appoint three monitors per polling station, on the grounds that there will be three elections (presidential, parliamentary and provincial) on the same day. But if each competing party appoints three monitors, "the polling stations will be full of people !", exclaimed Frelimo deputy Tomas Razao.

Renamo's main complaint with the current legislation is an article which states that, if there is a discrepancy between the number of voters ticked off on the electoral register, and the number of ballot papers in the ballot box, it is the number of ballot papers that counts.

This provision has been in every election law since the first multi-party elections of 1994 (when it was included on international advice). It was deemed necessary then, and now, because as the polling day wears on, polling staff become tired, and occasionally forget to tick names off on the register.

Renamo had no problem with this provision right up until 2006. Even then, in the tortuous negotiations prior to the vote on new legislation in December of that year, this law was not on the list of disputed issues in a document drawn up between the Frelimo and Renamo parliamentary leaderships.

One person, Renamo jurist Maximo Dias, objected to the clause in mid-December claiming it meant that, if only 100 people have voted at a polling station, but there are 500 ballot papers in the box, it is the 500 that will count.

So on Friday this claim was repeated by several Renamo deputies, although no such huge discrepancy has been found at any polling station in any previous election. Perhaps fittingly, since he had invented the problem, it was Maximo Dias who gave Renamo's "declaration of vote", claiming that this clause "is proof that the elections have been fraudulent".

"The so-called majority needs this article in order to win elections", he said, adding that more ballot papers are produced than there are voters on the registers "because Frelimo needs the extra ballot papers to stuff the boxes".

For Zelia Langa, of Frelimo, this disputed article "defends the rights of voters". Their votes would not be discarded just because a tired polling station official failed to tick their names off the list.

Renamo's proposal to solve this fictitious problem was that the ballot papers should be sequentially numbered, and should, like cheques in a cheque book, have a corresponding stub. If there were more ballot papers in the box then names ticked off, the numbers of the ballot papers would be checked against the stubs.

Quite apart from the time consumed in this operation, it does not solve the problem of names not ticked off the register. For the number of papers would be the same as the number of stubs, but would still not correspond to the number of names ticked off.

Renamo deputies seemed unaware that the ballot papers are already sequentially numbered. They do not have stubs, since stubs might conceivably compromise the secrecy of the ballot (alert staff or monitors could link names to stubs, and then the stubs to the ballot papers.)

Many of the statements made by Renamo deputies had little to do with the content of their bill, but were simple insults against Frelimo and against STAE. Jose Monteiro, claimed that STAE works as "a Frelimo Party committee", while Madalena Joao alleged that members of Frelimo and STAE "have extra ballot papers in their pockets".

Antonio Muchanga menaced that the people might be forced "to take up arms again", and that if President Armando Guebuza "wins the election by ballot box stuffing, he will not be able to govern".

Sabado Malenza of Frelimo retorted that "if Renamo wants to win an elections, its leader should interrupt his honeymoon in Nampula, and come to back to Maputo to organise his Party".

At this Muchanga jumped to his, gesticulating and shouting, and calling Malenza "a drunkard". (Malenza was referring to reports that Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama has clandestinely taken a second wife in the northern province of Nampula. Whether the stories are true or not, it is certainly the case that Dhlakama is currently residing in Nampula and has not been seen in Maputo for months).

When the Renamo bills were put to a vote they were defeated by 136 votes to 53. Thus 37 Renamo deputies - 41 per cent of the entire parliamentary group - did not bother to attend for a debate which their leadership claimed was crucial.