2009 Elections Mozambique Political Process Bulletin

Number 4, 15 September 2009, www.elections2009.cip.org.mz
Editor: Joseph Hanlon (j.hanlon@open.ac.uk)
Deputy editor: Adriano Nuvunga Research assistant: Tânia Frechauth
Published by CIP, Centro de Integridade Pública and AWEPA, the European Parliamentarians for Africa
Material may be freely reprinted. Please cite the Bulletin.
To subscribe in English: http://tinyurl.com/mz-en-sub Para assinar em Português: http://tinyurl.com/mz-pt-sub

MDM says it submitted
required documents
The MDM says it submitted adequate documents to the National Elections Commission, correcting all errors for which it was notified, for candidates for the national parliament. And documents seen by the Bulletin seem to be in order.
When approved candidates lists were published last week, the Mozambique Democratic Movement (Movimento Democrático de Moçambique - MDM) of Daviz Simango was only allowed to stand in four provinces, and was excluded from nine constituencies. The CNE said this was due to fundamental documents being missing for some candidates, including proof of residence and a certificate of no criminal record. To be accepted, a list must have as many candidates as there are parliamentary seats in the constituency, plus 3 extra.
MDM said that the CNE gave it a list of candidates with problems on 10 August (notificação nº 90/CNE/2009, de 10 de Agosto) including lack of birth certificate, identify card, proof of residence and criminal certificate. The MDM said that it submitted all the required documents on 17 August, and that the CNE had told it all requirements had been met.
The MDM has made a formal protest to the CNE, and if this is rejected goes automatically to the Constitutional Council.
The Bulletin has seen the material submitted and it seems generally to satisfy the requirements. However the lists for four key provinces, Cabo Delgado, Tete, Manica and Zambézia, only had the absolute minimum number of candidates required (seats to be filled plus three extra), which left no room for error – if a single document from just one candidate was missing, then the whole list fell.
The MDM is very new, and admits it was overstretched and had problems with lists for provincial assemblies. CNE president João Leopoldo da Costa last week showed diplomats two MDM letters asking that the rules be bent. But the MDM stresses that this was explicitly about provincial elections, and not about the national parliament (AR, Assembleia da República).
Electoral law says CNE should have allowed
parties to submit new candidates
The National Election Commission (Comissão Nacional de Eleições - CNE) failed to give parties a chance to substitute candidates who were rejected from lists because of incomplete documents. Indeed, the CNE seems to have skipped key steps in the electoral law.
The CNE published a calendar for general and provincial elections in its deliberação 9/CNE/2009. This included deadlines for all actors involved in the process, including the CNE itself and the secretariat for administration, STAE. This calendar established the period for submitting and verifying parties and their lists for national parliament (Assembleia da República) and provincial parliament and for resolving all problems and irregularities of documents submitted, as 29 July to 28 August. The CNE based this on laws 7/2007 and 10/2007. But it only completed this process on 6 September, citing law 15/2009 which harmonised various conflicting electoral laws. If it used 15/2009 for some parts of the electoral calendar, why did it not use this law for the rest of the calendar?
But the CNE had to skip essential steps in order to finish the process by 6 September. Article 174(1) of law 7/2007 established that after finding irregularities in the documents, the president of the CNE must immediately notify the party agent (mandatário), giving five days to resolve the problem. If the problem is not resolved, the candidate is excluded (art 2) and the party agent is immediately notified and given five days to substitute the excluded candidate with another (art 3). The CNE skipped this step. Article 175 (2) establishes that if a candidate if found to be ineligible, the president of the CNE must notify the party agent immediately, and the agent has ten days to make a substitution. The CNE also skipped this step, preventing affected parties from making substitutions, thus making some entire lists invalid
Article 176 then requires the publication of lists accepted and rejected by the CNE after the substitutions under articles 174 and 175 have been considered. Article 177 gives the parties five days to protest to the Constitutional Council (CC), via the CNE. Under article 178, final lists are only published after the CC has ruled and issues raised by the CC have been resolved. The CNE seems to have skipped this whole process.
Finally, several areas remain extremely cloudy. First, definitive lists have been posted before the CNE has published the final lists of the number of seats in each constituency. Second, it is not clear which electoral calendar is now in use. The electoral calendar is the fundamental instrument o guarantee transparency of the electoral process – but which calendar are we using?
Only 4 parties stand for provincial assemblies
Only four parties are standing for seats in provincial assemblies. The failure of the opposition to stand candidates in most districts means that Frelimo will win six provinces virtually unopposed. Only Manica and Sofala will be closely contested.
There are 141 constituencies in the ten provincial assemblies.
􀁺 Frelimo will stand in 138 – it failed to have lists approved only in Chimoio, Lichinga, and Lago (Niassa).
􀁺 Renamo will stand in 34, mainly Maputo, Manica and Cabo Delgado. It has no candidates in Zambézia and Nampula.
􀁺 MDM (Mozambique Democratic Movement, Movimento Democrático de Moçambique) will stand in 23 districts, primarily in Manica and Sofala, and in a few districts in four other provinces.
􀁺 PDD (Partido para Paz Democracia e Desenvolvimento – Party for Peace, Development and Democracy) will stand in three districts in Zambézia.
The full list of parties and districts is on pages 3 and 4.
Day 2 of election campaign
Acts of violence and use of state resources continued in various parts of the country on the second day of the campaign, according to information collected by our journalists and popular correspondents throughout the country.
Violence
Frelimo condemns violence: Frelimo responded to reports of violence by its young supporters by declaring that “Frelimo distances itself from the violence, and repudiates and vehemently condemns any acts against the law and public order.” Frelimo is “a mature and responsible party”, it continues, and its militants must maintain civility, discipline, tolerance and discipline. 14 September
Gondola, Manica: A group of young men waving Frelimo banners threw stones at Renamo members. 14 September, pm.
Mabalane, Gaza: A Frelimo “shock Group” invaded the house of a Renamo member, taking Renamo election material which was burned in front of the Frelimo headquarters.
Use of state cars and resources
Maputo city: Frelimo posters pasted over traffic lights at Praça da OMM, 14 September.
Morrumbala, Zambézia: Frelimo posters and pamphlets at the district administration office, Industrial School, rural hospital, and warehouse of Escola Pré Universitária 4 de Outubro. 14 September, am.
Tete city: Frelimo using white Toyota Hilux MLI 79-89 of provincial directorate of agriculture and a car of the provincial directorate of education and culture with the registration number covered by a Frelimo poster.
Incident
Chiure, Cabo Delgado : A lorry transporting MDM supporters to Catapwa went off the road and hit a post, injuring three people, two seriously. 14 February.
Provincial assemblies:
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Mozambique Political Process Bulletin
Editor: Joseph Hanlon (j.hanlon@open.ac.uk)
Deputy editor: Adriano Nuvunga -- Research assistant: Tânia Frechauth
Material may be freely reprinted and circulated. Please cite the Bulletin.
Published by CIP, Centro de Integridade Pública and AWEPA, the European Parliamentarians for Africa
___________________________________________________________________________________
To subscribe: Para assinar:
In English: http://tinyurl.com/mz-en-sub
Em Português: http://tinyurl.com/mz-pt-sub
To unsubscribe: http://tinyurl.com/mz-en-unsub
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Also on the web: Também na internet:
In English: News on the elections: http://www.elections2009.cip.org.mz
Previous issues of the Bulletin: http://www.bulletin.cip.org.mz
Em Português: Noticias sobre as Eleições: http://www.eleicoes2009.cip.org.mz
Boletims anteriores: http://www.boletim.cip.org.mz
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Correspondentes populares -- Envie a sua mensagem
82 986 5659 ou 84 386 5659 ou cipmoz@tvcabo.co.mz
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