President Filipe Nyusi on 28 May suggested postponing the election of district assemblies scheduled for 2024.
Speaking at the end of a two day meeting of the Central Committee of the ruling Frelimo Party, held in the southern city of Matola, President Nyusi called for "a reflection on the feasibility and sustainability of the country advancing to the election of district assemblies in 2024". He wanted the country's parliament, the government, the political parties, and civil society to be involved in such a reflection.
The election of district assemblies was a demand raised by the largest opposition party Renamo in negotiations over a package of decentralisation measures that were included in constitutional amendments passed in 2018.
There are currently 154 districts (more if urban districts are included). Nobody has calculated how much the district assemblies will cost. They will certainly complicate national elections. Voters will already be faced with three ballot papers in 2024, for the presidential, parliamentary, and provincial assembly elections. Adding a fourth, for the district assemblies, would lengthen the time taken to count the votes and declare the results. Even discounting the possibility of deliberate fraud, tired polling station staff, working since 05.00 in the morning, are bound to make more mistakes, if the count is extended deeper into the night.
Just as with the municipalities and the provinces, district assembly elections would be organised on a party list basis, with the head of the list of whichever party wins becoming the new district administrator. The administrator will head a district government, known as the District Executive Council, which answers to the District Assembly.
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The Constitution says nothing else. The powers of the district administrator and the District Executive Council are to be fixed by laws which do not yet exist. Even the size of the district assemblies is not yet known. But it seems certain that they will provide hundreds, if not thousands of new jobs, with wages and allowances adding to the pressures on the state budget.
There is also no clarity about where the powers of the provincial assemblies end and those of the district assemblies begin leaving fertile ground for conflict.
President Nyusi told the Central Committee that the decentralisation package of 2018 had "strong points and weak points" in terms both of the legislation itself and its practical application. Decentralisation "is not a linear or finished process", he said, and so there should be "a functional analysis" to maximise the opportunities of the current scheme and "to reduce the potential overlapping of the attributes and powers of the bodies of provincial governance and those that represent the State in the province".
"This is a reflection which should be made, with a cool head, and with our feet on the ground, so that the decision most appropriate for our country is taken", said President Nyusi.
