Maputo — Mozambique's main opposition party, Renamo, has claimed it would be unconstitutional to postpone the elections for district assemblies, scheduled for 2024, as suggested by President Filipe Nyusi on Saturday.
Speaking to reporters in Maputo on Monday, after the opening of a meeting of the Renamo National Council, the party's national spokesperson, Jose Manteigas, said that the Constitution envisages district elections "which are the culmination of the decentralization process, and we all know that it brings advantages to any state".
He claimed that the district elections would bring services closer to citizens. They would "allow citizens to choose their leaders. We cannot allow dictatorial and imposed governments".
By suggesting a postponement, he added, Nyusi "is trying to stop the wind with his hands",
The Constitution does indeed say that the first district assemblies will be elected in 2024, but the country's parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, could easily amend this clause, if it felt that holding district elections in 2024 would be impractical.
On one point Manteigas is certainly wrong - citizens will not elect district administrators, at least not directly. Just as with the municipalities and the provinces, the district assembly elections will be organized on a party list basis. The head of the list of whichever party wins will become the new district administrator. The administrator heads a district government, known as the District Executive Council, which answers to the District Assembly.
The Constitution says nothing else. The powers of the District Administrator and of the District Executive Council are to be fixed by laws which do not yet exist. Nobody yet knows how the district assemblies will be financed.
There are 154 districts (more, if urban districts are included). Nobody yet knows how large these assemblies will be. But if there is an average of only 30 members per assembly, that is still an extra 4,620 people who must be found wages or allowances.
Even if Renamo loses the elections heavily, it is bound to have several hundred of its members sitting in the new assemblies, which is doubtless why it is so keen that the elections should go ahead.
