Good afternoon. News that the National Elections Commission (CNE) has decided to exclude the Democratic Alliance Coalition (CAD) from running in October’s parliamentary and provincial elections is no great surprise, given the hostility towards the coalition from opposition party Renamo, which is represented on the commission.
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From the Zitamar Live Blog:
Zitamar Mozambique Live Blog
Mozambique’s National Elections Commission (Comissão Nacional de Eleições, CNE) ruled last night that the CAD coalition is not eligible to run in Mozambique’s national and provincial elections this October. In a debate that went on into the early hours of this morning, the CNE ultimately decided to exclude CAD on the grounds that: 1. It had informed the Ministry of Justice of its coalition agreement outside of the legal deadline to do so, and 2. CAD claimed to be a distinct legal entity on its own, rather than simply a coalition of legal entities, in violation of Mozambican electoral law. The decision — which CAD intends to appeal to the Constitutional Council — means that CAD will not be able to run candidates for Mozambique’s national parliament or provincial parliaments. Venâncio Mondlane, who is CAD’s presidential candidate, has had his candidacy approved at the highest level, but will presumably now not be formally the CAD candidate, but rather an independent. The CNE deliberation is attached.
The commission objected to CAD on the grounds that it presented itself as an independent organisation, despite being a coalition of political parties, and that it was late submitting documentation. Whatever the merits of these arguments, it is striking that they did not matter when the CNE approved CAD’s registration for the elections earlier in the year.
