Maputo — Mozambique's main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, has said that it will only submit its proposed amendments to the electoral legislation, to the country's parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, when a "political agreement", resulting from the current dialogue between the government and Renamo, has been signed.
On Monday, Mateus Katupha, the spokesperson for the Assembly's governing board, its Standing Commission, told reporters on Monday that the head of the Renamo parliamentary group, Angelina Enoque "has agreed that the Assembly is the appropriate place to debate some of the matters that have been the subject of the dialogue".
This was interpreted as meaning that Renamo will shortly submit its proposals, so that they can be included on the agenda for the extraordinary sitting of the Assembly due to begin on 1 August.
But apparently Enoque meant no such thing. Cited in the newssheet "CanalMoz", she said Renamo's proposed amendments "cannot enter the Assembly without a political agreement because we are not interested in a debate where we are humiliated, and everything remains the same".
In other words, Renamo wants to stitch up a deal with the government, and then force it through parliament, regardless of what other parliamentarians (from the ruling Frelimo Party, and from the Mozambique Democratic Movement, MDM) might think.
The "humiliation" Enoque referred to was the fact that Renamo lost the vote when the electoral laws were passed in December.
Katupha had said on Monday that time had been granted to Renamo to organise its proposals, but Enoque said this was "a lie". She insisted that she had not asked for any time, and that depositing the proposals depended on a prior agreement between the government and Renamo delegations that have been meeting sporadically and fruitlessly for months.
There is no sign of a "political agreement" being signed in the near future. Before anything else, the government wants to discuss disarming Renamo's illegal security force, known as its "Presidential Guard", generally regarded as responsible for ambushes on the main north-south highway in late May, in which at least three people are known to have died. But at the latest session of the dialogue, on Monday, Renamo refused to discuss this issue.
Because the head of the government delegation in the dialogue, Agriculture Minister Jose Pacheco, described Renamo's concerns over the electoral law as "pertinent", Enoque makes the assumption that the government now agrees with the Renamo proposal.
"We shall sign an agreement where they agree with our proposal and we will take the agreement to parliament so that the proposal can be approved", she said. In other words, the Assembly will just be used as a rubber stamp.
The likelihood of this happening seems remote. Renamo is still insisting on an effective opposition majority on the National Elections Commission (CNE) and, much worse, on the complete politicisation of the CNE's executive body, the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE).
Under the Renamo proposal, the parliamentary political parties, would appoint members to STAE on a basis of "parity", imposed at all levels (central, provincial, district and city). Thus the professional election officials would have competing political gendarmes looking over their shoulders. This is the system which existed in the 1990s, with very poor results. It would create a risk that the whole electoral machinery might grind to a standstill.
Comments Post a comment