Convening of elections has been forgotten

The Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Thursday approved an amendment to the provision in the electoral legislation for setting the date for the next presidential and parliamentary elections.The measure was taken to ensure that the elections can take place in October 2014, before President Armando Guebuza’s five year term of office comes to an end. The first half of October is regarded as the best time for elections, since it is before the onset of the rains, and most of the country’s roads should be passable.Under the previous timetable, the President had to set the date of the election, after consulting with the National Elections Commission (CNE), at least 18 montsh in advance.However, the amendment changes the timetable to so that the polling day can be set “at least twelve months in advance”. This was because the Assembly’s Commission on Public Administration had argued that the previous conditions could not be met as the CNE is only now being set up.Guebuza swore 11 members of the CNE into office on Wednesday, and on Thursday the CNE chose as its chairperson, Sheikh Abdul Carimo Sau, the deputy chairperson of the Islamic Council of Mozambique (CISLAMO). He is also Executive Director of the Electoral Observatory, which is the most credible coalition of civil society groups in the country, consisting of the main religious denominations (Catholic, Protestant and Moslem), and NGOs such as the Human Rights League.The CNE should have 13 members – the last two are to be appointed by the main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo. But Renamo is currently boycotting anything to do with elections and so has not appointed its CNE members. The decision to alter the deadlines was adopted unanimously with deputies from the ruling party Frelimo and the opposition party the Mozambique Democratic Movement voting in favour. As expected, the Renamo parliamentary group took no part in the vote. They did not even abstain and were simply not in the room – hence the vote could be unanimous.Instead, Renamo tried in vain to reopen the debate when it returned to the parliamentary chamber but the Assembly had already moved on to votes on amended tax legislation.