Maputo — The mayor of Beira, and leader of the opposition Mozambique Democratic movement (MDM), Daviz Simango, has accused the National Elections Commission (CNE) of "killing democracy".
Simango was speaking to the independent television station STV on Tuesday, immediately after he met with the CNE chairperson, Joao Leopoldo da Costa, to protest against the CNE's decision to exclude, without explanation, the MDM's lists from nine of the 13 constituencies in the parliamentary elections scheduled for 28 October.
After his half hour audience with Costa, Simango said the exclusion of the MDM, and of a number of minor parties, was a deliberate assault against multi-party democracy. "The CNE is killing democracy", he warned. "This body has not been faithful to the law and has ceased to comply with its duties. The MDM has been prejudiced by this body, and as president of the party I am obliged to come here and express my disagreement".
He accused "some parties" represented on the CNE of being afraid of the MDM. He was clearly referring to the ruling Frelimo Party and to the former rebel movement Renamo, since these are the only parties who appointed members to the CNE.
"It was the CNE and not the MDM which acted in an irregular manner", he said. "We have proof that we have complied with all the legal requirements. There is an attempt to prevent the MDM from competing nationally. They are afraid of the MDM".
Some of the minor parties excluded from some or all of the constituencies took a much more radical line than the MDM. While the MDM has stressed that it is committed to following the law and will use the available legal channels to fight against the CNE's decision, the minor parties have threatened to wage "war". The threat, made by the general secretary of the Ecologist Party, Joao Massango, is empty, since these tiny parties have next to no presence in Mozambican society.
The minor parties met with Costa on Tuesday and, according to Massango, Costa admitted that "mistakes" might have been made when the CNE checked the lists of candidates.
Cited by the daily newsheet "Canal de Mocambique", Costa even said it might be possible to "re-admit" lists which the CNE had initially rejected.
However, Costa also told the minor parties that because, under the Mozambican system, the voters choose a party list and not individual candidates, if a list contains irregularities, then all the candidates on the list are rejected.
This is simply wrong. The law is quite clear that, in the event of any irregularities in the nomination papers, the CNE must notify the party concerned which then has five days to correct the irregularities. The MDM says it corrected all the irregularities of which it was notified (largely concerning the criminal record certificates of some of its candidates). Parties cannot be penalized for irregularities of which they were not notified.
If a party cannot correct an irregularity, or if one of its candidates is ineligible, it has the right to replace that candidate, or can simply move a name from the list of supplementary candidates to full candidate status.
A list can only be rejected in full if it does not contain enough names. Each list must contain enough names to fill all the seats in the constituency (45 in the case of the largest constituencies, Nampula and Zambezia) plus at least three supplementary candidates. The MDM says that all its lists contained more than sufficient names.
On Wednesday, the Electoral Observatory, the main domestic electoral observation body, demanded an urgent meeting with the CNE to discuss the exclusion of parties from the elections, and the violent incidents that have occurred even before the start of the election campaign.
The observatory is a coalition between the three main religious bodies in the country (the Catholic Bishops' Conference, the Christian Council and the Islamic Council), and several major NGOs.
Fonte: allafrica (9 September 2009)
Simango was speaking to the independent television station STV on Tuesday, immediately after he met with the CNE chairperson, Joao Leopoldo da Costa, to protest against the CNE's decision to exclude, without explanation, the MDM's lists from nine of the 13 constituencies in the parliamentary elections scheduled for 28 October.
After his half hour audience with Costa, Simango said the exclusion of the MDM, and of a number of minor parties, was a deliberate assault against multi-party democracy. "The CNE is killing democracy", he warned. "This body has not been faithful to the law and has ceased to comply with its duties. The MDM has been prejudiced by this body, and as president of the party I am obliged to come here and express my disagreement".
He accused "some parties" represented on the CNE of being afraid of the MDM. He was clearly referring to the ruling Frelimo Party and to the former rebel movement Renamo, since these are the only parties who appointed members to the CNE.
"It was the CNE and not the MDM which acted in an irregular manner", he said. "We have proof that we have complied with all the legal requirements. There is an attempt to prevent the MDM from competing nationally. They are afraid of the MDM".
Some of the minor parties excluded from some or all of the constituencies took a much more radical line than the MDM. While the MDM has stressed that it is committed to following the law and will use the available legal channels to fight against the CNE's decision, the minor parties have threatened to wage "war". The threat, made by the general secretary of the Ecologist Party, Joao Massango, is empty, since these tiny parties have next to no presence in Mozambican society.
The minor parties met with Costa on Tuesday and, according to Massango, Costa admitted that "mistakes" might have been made when the CNE checked the lists of candidates.
Cited by the daily newsheet "Canal de Mocambique", Costa even said it might be possible to "re-admit" lists which the CNE had initially rejected.
However, Costa also told the minor parties that because, under the Mozambican system, the voters choose a party list and not individual candidates, if a list contains irregularities, then all the candidates on the list are rejected.
This is simply wrong. The law is quite clear that, in the event of any irregularities in the nomination papers, the CNE must notify the party concerned which then has five days to correct the irregularities. The MDM says it corrected all the irregularities of which it was notified (largely concerning the criminal record certificates of some of its candidates). Parties cannot be penalized for irregularities of which they were not notified.
If a party cannot correct an irregularity, or if one of its candidates is ineligible, it has the right to replace that candidate, or can simply move a name from the list of supplementary candidates to full candidate status.
A list can only be rejected in full if it does not contain enough names. Each list must contain enough names to fill all the seats in the constituency (45 in the case of the largest constituencies, Nampula and Zambezia) plus at least three supplementary candidates. The MDM says that all its lists contained more than sufficient names.
On Wednesday, the Electoral Observatory, the main domestic electoral observation body, demanded an urgent meeting with the CNE to discuss the exclusion of parties from the elections, and the violent incidents that have occurred even before the start of the election campaign.
The observatory is a coalition between the three main religious bodies in the country (the Catholic Bishops' Conference, the Christian Council and the Islamic Council), and several major NGOs.
Fonte: allafrica (9 September 2009)
Nota: 1) Nuno Amorim e Heitor Jacob deverão ler isto e as leis em vigor para trazerem os seus contra-argumentos. 2) O sublinhado é meu.
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