Maputo — The Constitutional Council, Mozambique's highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law, has rejected an appeal by Ossufo Momade, the presidential candidate of the main opposition party, Renamo, to declare illegitimate the symbol chosen by the Democratic Alliance Coalition (CAD), which is supporting Venancio Mondlane, once an adviser to Momade, in his presidential bid.
The CAD symbol is a pigeon, and Momade argues that this could be confused with the Renamo symbol of a partridge. This might lead to "irreparable confusion' in the minds of the electorate, he claimed.
The symbol used by Mondlane and the CAD was "more recent' than the Renamo symbol and so "must have been adopted to steal votes from Renamo and its candidate', Momade said.
He claimed that, if told "vote for the bird', voters might not know which species of bird was intended.
Momade thus urged the Constitutional Council to order the CAD and Mondlane to choose a different symbol, in order to avoid any confusion.
The Council, however, threw out Momade's appeal on completely different grounds. Momade had presented himself as a presidential candidate, but he did not yet enjoy that status, because the Council has not completed checking his nomination papers.
All presidential candidates must present documents showing that they are Mozambican citizens over 35 years of age, in full possession of their political and civil rights. They must also present at least 10,000 supporting signatures from registered voters, each of which must be recognised by a notary.
Since the Council has not yet announced that the documents and signatures presented by Momade are authentic, he cannot claim to be a presidential candidate. On these grounds alone, the Council threw out Momade's protest against the CAD symbol.
On one key point, Momade was factually wrong. There is nothing new about the CAD symbol. A pigeon has been the coalition's symbol ever since it was set up by the human rights activist, the late Alice Mabote, in 2019.
Furthermore, the CAD and Renamo are not the only organizations which use birds for their symbol. The symbol of the second largest party, the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), is a cockerel, but Renamo has never demanded that the MDM change its symbol.
