Assembly alters voter registration date

Maputo, 24 Jan (AIM) – The Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, meeting in Maputo in an extraordinary sitting on Wednesday, voted unanimously to amend the electoral legislation making it possible to hold voter registration outside of the rainy season.

Previously, the law stated that registration must be held within six months of the government announcing the date of the elections.

On the proposal of the National Elections Commission (CNE), the government set the date for the 2024 presidential, parliamentary and provincial elections for 9 October.

With its hands tied by the six month deadline stipulated by the law, the CNE announced that voter registration would be held from 1 February to 16 March – which is right in the middle of the rainy season.

The CNE itself, and all the parliamentary parties (the ruling Frelimo Party, and the opposition Renamo and Mozambique Democratic Movement, MDM) knew that holding registration in the rains would be wildly impractical.

It was almost certain that roads in parts of the country would become impassable, making it difficult, if not impossible, to transport voter registration material to remote areas. Voter turnout could be affected, since potential voters might think twice before queuing up for hours in the rain.

Furthermore, the consortium of the Lexton/Artes Grafica companies, responsible for the technical side of voter registration, will simply not have the necessary supplies and equipment ready before the start of April – a fortnight after registration is supposed to have finished, according to the CNE calendar.

Frelimo submitted an amendment to the voter registration law which will allow the dates to be changed. This simple amendment says that registration must be held within, not six months, but nine months, of the government announcing the date of the elections. (Initially, Frelimo had proposed 12 months, but during the debate this was cut to nine months)

The spokesperson for the Frelimo parliamentary group, Felix Silvia, said this will allow the CNE to announce a more realistic calendar for registration, which he believed would be in March and April, the first months of the dry season.

The revised calendar for voter registration is likely to be from 16 March to 28 April.

The amendment also extends the period in which the voter rolls cannot be changed from 30 days to 45 days after the end of registration.

Initially, Frelimo had wanted to tag on many other changes in the electoral timetable – but the Renamo members of the Assembly’s governing board, the Standing Commission, refused to go along with this.

To ensure a unanimous decision on the agenda for the extraordinary sitting, Frelimo dropped its other amendments. They will come back to the Assembly at its next ordinary sitting, due to begin in February.

Perhaps the most controversial Frelimo amendment sought to reduce the period for candidates to submit their nomination papers to just 20 days, rather than the current two months for parliamentary candidates and three months for candidates for the provincial assemblies.

Months are required rather than weeks because of the bureaucratic hurdles that would-be candidates have often faced in obtaining the documents required by law, including their criminal record certificate, and authenticated copies of their identity card and voter registration card.

In the past, local officials have frequently dragged their feet in providing opposition candidates with the documents they need. It is thus in Renamo’s interest not to accept the proposal to cut the time for presenting nomination papers to just 20 days.

After the Assembly vote, the spokesperson for the Renamo parliamentary group, Arnaldo Chalaua, told reporters that the inconvenience and expense of an extraordinary Assembly sitting could have been avoided if attention had been paid to Renamo’s concerns last year.

He claimed that Renamo had been the first party to object to holding voter registration during the rains. The law, he added, could have been amended during the last ordinary sitting of the Assembly in 2023.

(AIM)

Pf/ (655)