Maputo — Mozambican Justice Minister Helena Kida will chair the "Commission to Reflect on the Viability of Holding District Elections in 2024' (CRED), according to a report in Wednesday's issue of the independent daily "O Pais'.
At least two other ministers will sit on CRED ex oficio - the Minister of Economy and Finance (Max Tonela) and the minister whose brief includes local administration (Ana Comoana).
No other members of CRED have yet been appointed. It should include "experienced staff in the area of local governance and public finance', and academics "from the area of public administration, decentralization, and constitutional and administrative law'.
But none of these have yet been named. It is already certain that no members of opposition parties will sit on the Commission. Indeed, the main opposition party, Renamo, regards CRED as illegitimate, and wants it scrapped.
At a Maputo press conference on Monday, the Renamo General Secretary, Clementina Bomba, said the commission was no more than an attempt by the ruling Frelimo Party to make the district elections impossible.
"The ultimate aim of this commission is to legalise the decision already taken by the Frelimo Party to deny the district elections and override the Constitution itself', she declared. Bomba regarded this as a coup d'etat against the democratic rule of law.
It was a scheme, she said, "which intends to alter the established legal order, and to radicalize the dictatorship and tyranny of the regime'.
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Given that uncompromising statement, the likelihood of any opposition sympathisers joining CRED must be rated as near to zero.
CRED has just 15 days to undertake its activities throughout the country. Those activities, the "O Pais' report said, include "reflecting on the viability of holding district elections in 2024, considering political, administrative, social and financial factors; assessing the implementation of decentralization in the country; and analyzing the territorial coexistence and functional coordination between the bodies of provincial governance, municipal bodies and the bodies of decentralized district governance'.
CRED must then advise the government "on the position to be taken regarding the deepening of decentralization at district level in 2024'.
The problem arises from the constitutional amendments of 2018. To placate Renamo, these included a commitment to elect district assemblies in 2024.
But the Constitution does not say how these district assemblies will work, how they will coordinate with provincial or municipal assemblies, or even how many members they will have.
Nothing was done to fill in these gaps, although they were as obvious in 2018 as they are now.
