Maputo, 25 Apr (AIM) – The chairperson of the Mozambican Association of Judges (AMJ), Esmeraldo Matavele, on Wednesday launched an extraordinary attack on the Constitutional Council which he described as “poisoning” Mozambican democracy.
The Constitutional Council is the country’s highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law. Last year, after the municipal elections, the Council seized for itself all power to declare elections null and void or to order recounts – much to the annoyance of the Supreme Court, who believed that this power lay with the district and city courts.
Mozambican electoral legislation appears to state clearly that, in the first instance, the district courts have the power to annul elections, although their decisions can be appealed to the Constitutional Council.
In several municipalities, courts ruled that the results of the October 2023 election were deeply flawed, and they ordered recounts, or that the results be scrapped and new elections be held.
But in every case the Constitutional Council overruled the district courts and declared that it was the only body to annul elections. The role of the district courts was thus reduced to mere window dressing.
At a Maputo press conference on Wednesday, Matavele said the Council was subverting the spirit of the law, and called on the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, to clarify the role of the district courts, and thus contribute to the consolidation of the democratic rule of law.
“Deliberately, and with the intention of damaging the rule of law, the Constitutional Council wants to take power away from the district courts in matters of electoral disputes”, said Matavele. “As judges, we think the intention of the Council could call into question the construction of democracy in Mozambique, and lead the country into post-election conflicts”.
The Constitutional Council, he added, is acting “as a poison for the building of democracy”.
Matavele found it “very strange” that the Council only discovered it was the sole body empowered to annul elections or order recounts after the district courts had attempted to exercise those powers.
He thought it was clear that the existing law did indeed grant the district courts those powers, and this was the understanding of the majority of the country’s judges.
Matavele lamented that in its 2023 rulings, the Constitutional Council had taken these powers away from the district courts.
At the time, the AMJ, he said, had gone to the press “to say that we did not agree with that position. Many other institutions and individuals took the same position”.
One of the points on the agenda of the current parliamentary sitting is revising the electoral legislation. Matavele noted “it remains doubtful whether the Assembly will change the law in the terms that most of the judicial community has defended, or whether it will accept the thesis put forward by the Constitutional Council”.
Matavele had no doubt that, if the position of the Council prevails, “that will be a setback for democracy”.
(AIM)
Mr/sg/pf (496)
