Maputo — Talks between the Mozambican government and the largest opposition party, Renamo, once again failed to make any progress due to Renamo's insistence that the government changes the country's electoral legislation.
Speaking at a press conference after Thursday's meeting in Maputo, the head of the government delegation, Agriculture Minister Jose Pacheco, pointed out that "the meetings are not a forum that can take decisions which are then mechanically ratified by other organs".
The government has consistently argued that it has no power to instruct the country's parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, to accept any proposed changes to legislation. Nor is there any consensus over what any draft electoral legislation should look like.
At Thursday's talks the government attempted to raise three issues: firstly, the disarmament of Renamo; secondly, the proposed meeting between President Armando Guebuza and Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama; and thirdly, the signing of the minutes from the three previous sessions.
According to Pacheco, Renamo decided to ignore the issue of disarmament, arguing that it is irrelevant and could be dealt with under the agenda point "defence and security" (and would thus not begin to be tackled until after the completion of the agenda point on electoral legislation).
On hopes that the two political leaders could meet soon in Maputo, Renamo raised a precondition that the Mozambican army and police be withdrawn from positions near Dhlakama's bush headquarters at Satunjira, in Gorongosa district in the central province of Sofala.
The Renamo delegation proposed that if the government was unwilling to accept the precondition, then President Guebuza would have to go to Gorongosa for the meeting.
However, Pacheco rejected the precondition arguing that "the actions of the forces of defence and security are designed to guarantee territorial integrity and security, personal security, and the protection of public property".
The head of the Renamo delegation, Saimone Macuiana, said that after receiving the invitation to the latest talks his party was convinced that the government was ready to make progress, "but this did not happen".
Macuiana lamented that "to our astonishment, the government once again came and reaffirmed what it said in the last session, on 1 July, that it did not agree to adopt the points presented by the Renamo delegation which it agrees are clear, relevant, pertinent, opportune and urgent".
The talks are thus stalled on the very first point of discussion. The other three agenda points relate to defence and security, party political bias in the state apparatus, and economic questions.
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