MDM Promises Appeal to Constitutional Council

Maputo — Mozambique's largest extra-parliamentary party, the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), on Tuesday confirmed that it is appealing to the Constitutional Council, the highest body in electoral matters, against the decision by the National Elections Commission (CNE) to exclude it from nine of the 13 constituencies in the 28 October parliamentary election.
MDM election agent Jose Manuel de Sousa told a Maputo press conference that earlier in the day the MDM leader and presidential candidate, Daviz Simango, met with CNE chairperson Joao Leopoldo da Costa, and asked for a copy of the CNE resolution excluding the MDM.
Such a document ought to exist, giving the reasons why the nine MDM lists were excluded, said Sousa. Furthermore the CNE decision should have been made public by posting it on the CNE notice board.
However, to date only the lists approved by the CNE have been posted, plus a laconic statement merely listing which parties or coalitions have been approved and for which constituencies. Although the law clearly states that the rejected lists must also be posted, none of them have yet appeared.
"We want a document stating that the MDM has been excluded from certain provinces for this or that reason", said Sousa.
Costa told Simango that he would meet with the other CNE members and "in due course, the rejected lists would also be posted".
"This means nothing to us, since there are deadlines that have to be complied with", exclaimed Sousa.
He pointed out that the lists posted by the CNE bear the date 28 August - but in reality most of them were only posted on 6 September. He noted that initially just three MDM lists were posted - for the Maputo City, Inhambane and Niassa constituencies. Only later did a fourth list, for the MDM stronghold of Sofala, appear.
The MDM suspects that the CNE wanted to exclude it from Sofala as well, but had second thoughts. "The Sofala list appeared in order to calm the people of Sofala, because the MDM is regarded as the hegemonic force in that province", said Sousa.
Sousa pointed out that, under Mozambican electoral legislation, there is no such thing as an ineligible or irregular list - only ineligible or irregular candidates. Should a candidate prove ineligible, the party concerned has the right to replace him or her, and when irregularities are detected in a candidate's nomination papers the party has five days to correct them.
Sousa said that, as MDM election agent, he was notified of a number of irregularities. These concerned candidates who had not submitted a certificate of no criminal record, or whose identification was insufficient (because, for example, their identity card had expired).
He said the MDM candidates corrected all these irregularities, submitted the missing documents, and provided acceptable identification. Sousa then took the corrected papers personally to the CNE and watched as an official in Costa's office went through them one by one, giving them a stamp of approval.
Sousa said he was not notified of any other irregularities, and so was astonished to find that nine lists were rejected. And it was not the CNE who informed him of the exclusion - he learnt of it from a spokesperson of the ruling Frelimo Party interviewed on television.
He cited Manica province as an example. The MDM submitted a complete slate of full and supplementary candidates for Manica. The CNE notified Sousa that there were three irregularities concerning criminal record certificates. These were promptly corrected, he said - yet Manica is one of the constituencies from which the MDM has been excluded.
The MDM also argues that Monday's drawing of lots for positions on the ballot paper was illegal because it flagrantly violated a ruling made by the Constitutional Council in January. Then the Council rapped the CNE over the knuckles for its failure to treat candidates in the November municipal elections on a footing of equality - instead, it had ranked them on the ballot paper in line with the number of municipalities they were standing in, which ensured that the ruling Frelimo Party and the former rebel movement Renamo would occupy the top two positions on the ballot papers in all municipalities.
The Council said there was no justification for this, and ordered that "in future this incorrect procedure should be avoided". Yet on Monday Frelimo and Renamo were given the top two positions on the parliamentary ballot paper, simply because they are the only two parties with lists approved for all 13 constituencies.
Sousa warned that the MDM is also considering initiating criminal proceedings against Costa and the other 12 members of the CNE for what the party regards as their serious breaches of the electoral laws.
Sousa thought that the exclusions were intended to demoralize MDM members. The MDM was responding, he said, by urging its members to remain firm and continue working for victory in the elections.
"Nobody is going to divide the MDM", he said. "This is not a movement that was created from the top down. It arose as an expression of the will of our citizens, and it is implanted in all parts of the country".

Fonte: http://allafrica.com/stories/200909081021.html

Nota: Sugiro que mais do que falar do tempo da criação do MDM, o melhor seria ler com cuidado estes argumentos e refutar se houver contra-argumento.