Maputo — The Democratic Alliance Coalition (CAD), a grouping of nine Mozambican extra-parliamentary parties, has claimed that the National Elections Commission (CNE) is conspiring with the notarial offices to prevent its candidates from standing for seats in the provincial assemblies, in the elections scheduled for 9 October.
One requirement for all candidates is a criminal record certificate. At a Maputo press conference on Friday, the CAD election agent, Elvino Dias, claimed that the CNE, in league with the notarial offices, was deliberately making it difficult for CAD candidates to acquire the certificates.
Dias said that in the central province of Manica the CNE had rejected all the CNE nomination papers, because none of the candidates had included their criminal record certificate.
"The authorities have entered into a criminal conspiracy, in which the criminal record registrars do not print documents, and the Provincial Elections Commission then rejects any candidate who does not have a criminal record certificate', he accused.
Dias said that something similar was happening with candidates for the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic. The CAD's list of parliamentary candidates for the northern province of Cabo Delgado had been rejected "without any plausible explanation', he claimed.
The CAD had presented its lists of parliamentary candidates to the CNE in Maputo, and all had been accepted except the list for Cabo Delgado.
Dias said the CAD had corrected the irregularities spotted by the CNE, but to no avail.
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"We regularized the three documents that were missing but, to our surprise, when we returned on Thursday to submit the duly corrected lists the commission that receives nomination papers refused to receive our list for Cabo Delgado', he said.
He claimed that the CNE had committed "a serious violation' of the election legislation, and the CAD would now appeal to the Constitutional Council, the country's highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law.
According to the calendar published by the CNE, all nomination papers should have been submitted by 10 June.
The CAD has acquired some prominence, solely because it has become the principal backer of Venancio Mondlane, who was the candidate for Mayor of Maputo for the main opposition party, Renamo, in last year's municipal elections.
Mondlane had hoped to stand for the presidency of Renamo at the party's congress on 15-17 May. But the Renamo leadership denied him entrance to the Congress.
Mondlane resigned from Renamo and is now running as an independent in the October presidential election, backed by small extra-parliamentary parties, including the components of the CAD.
