Maputo — The Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Tuesday passed a series of amendments to the electoral legislation, some of which might increase transparency and avoid fraud.
There was very little debate, since agreement had been reached earlier between the parliamentary groups of the ruling Frelimo Party, and the main opposition party, Renamo, inside the parliamentary commission on public administration and local power, which formally presented the amendments to the Tuesday plenary session of the Assembly.
The amendments then passed unanimously, and in record time.
Perhaps the most significant change in the amendments is that district and city law courts are given the power to order a recount of votes - a power which last year, in a hotly contested ruling, the Constitutional Council had taken away from the courts.
Now, if there are protests at supposedly fraudulent results, the district court will first review the copies of the polling station results sheets ("editais') and minutes submitted by the parties and, if there are irregularities, the court can demand a recount.
Each of the competing parties should have a copy of the editais and minutes, and in principle these should be the same as the editais and minutes in possession of the polling station staff, and posted on the station walls. Last year, during the municipal elections, dishonest staff altered editais and minutes, leading to fraudulent results in several municipalities. Recounts could expose these frauds. But only the Constitutional Council can declare the election null and void and order a new vote.
This might resolve the angry dispute between the Constitutional Council and the Supreme Court, which was infuriated when the Council declared that only it could order recounts and cancel elections.
The Assembly also accepted one opposition demand for more openness during the district count. The laws would be strengthened to say that at district level "observers and the media shall attend the tabulation of results and shall be notified in writing" of the time and place. This should prevent clandestine counts at district level.
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However, other demands for more transparency were rejected - allowing the provincial and national elections commission to continue the disreputable practice of making changes to the results in secret and without explanation. The Frelimo majority also rejected the opposition demand that the elections commissions should publish their various tabulation documents, such as the tables of votes by polling station and by district.
The amendments also demand that the booths inside the polling stations should be transparent, and that the slots in the ballot boxes should only be large enough to admit one ballot paper at a time. This should stop fraudsters from introducing several ballot papers at once, filled out in advance, and folded up.
In response to a fraud last year where some polling station chairpersons simply stopped counting, the amendments allow that, after voting but before the count, the polling station staff, may take a break of up to one hour. But once they start the count, it must be "uninterrupted" until it is finished and the results sheets have been posted and copies given to parties, observers and media.
Although the second opposition party, the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) voted for the amendments, it protested that, in reality they had been agreed between Frelimo and Renamo, without any proper consultation with the MDM.
MDM deputy Laurinda Cheia stressed that far deeper changes were required. "The electoral legislation needs far-reaching revision, without political shackles, and without the introduction of provisions that only benefit the ruling party', she said.
