Maputo — The Constitutional Council, the highest body in applying Mozambican constitutional law, has reinstated nine deputies who were sacked from the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, because they stood as candidates for the newly-formed Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) in the 28 October parliamentary elections.

The nine deputies are Maria Moreno, Ismail Mussa, Artur Vilanculos, Joao Colaco, Abel Sana-Sana, Agostinho Ussore, Cornelio Quivela, Joana Carvalho and Claudina Guimaraes. All were once members of the former rebel movement Renamo, and in the 2004 elections they entered parliament on the ticket of the Renamo-Electoral Union coalition.

This year they all resigned from Renamo, and accepted positions on the lists of candidates for the MDM. Renamo then demanded that they should lose their parliamentary seats, because the constitution states that deputies lose their seats if they join or hold office in parties or coalitions other than the one for which they were elected. The nine ex-Renamo deputies retorted that they had not in fact joined the MDM and held no positions within the MDM.

When the matter was discussed by the Legal Affairs Commission of the Assembly, all the members from the majority Frelimo Party sided with Renamo and agreed that the nine should be kicked out of parliament. This was rubber stamped by the Assembly's governing board, which formally stripped them of their seats. The nine immediately appealed to the Constitutional Council.

They pointed out that they had never been allowed the right to defend themselves, and had not even been formally notified of the decision to throw them out of the Assembly.

In a ruling dated Wednesday, the Council agreed that, in such a serious matter, the deputies should have been able to contest the accusation. They should have been granted the right to defend themselves, and they should have been properly notified of the charges and the decision.

The Council thus ruled that the Standing Commission's decision to strip the nine of their parliamentary seats "did not obey the appropriate legal procedures", and thus suffered from "the omission of essential formalities".

Even more serious, the Standing Commission did not prove that the nine had in fact joined the MDM, or accepted positions in the MDM. Merely standing on the lists of the MDM for the future parliament was no evidence at all, since the Constitution states explicitly that "parties may stand for election on their own, or in coalitions, and their lists may include people who are not members of the party".

That, the Council pointed out, meant it was illegitimate to assume that because a person was proposed by a party for a parliamentary seat, he or she must be a member of that party.

Once the election campaign began, it was perfectly normal for all people on the party's list to campaign for the party, regardless of whether they were members. "This should not necessarily lead to the conclusion that the candidate is an office holder in the party", the Council said.

Since there was no proof that the nine ex-Renamo deputies had done anything that would lead to them losing their seats, they had to be reinstated, with all their rights, the Council ruled.

In practical terms, this decision means that the Assembly will have to pay the nine deputies their parliamentary wages which were suspended in September. The five months' wages, plus the New Year bonus paid to all state officials, for the nine amounts to 1.95 million meticais (about 71,000 US dollars).

The outgoing parliament will not meet again, and the deputies elected on 28 October will take their seats on 12 January. The eight MDM deputies in the new parliament include Mussa and Ussore.

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