Mozambique government, Renamo agree

renamoMAPUTO. — The Mozambican government and the former rebel movement Renamo have agreed to change the composition of the National Elections Commission (CNE), expanding it from 13 to 17 members, as the competition for this year’s general election is gaining momentum in the southern African country, according to a press release yesterday.

Renamo will submit the amendments to the electoral legislation to the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, which has the power to change the current law to alter the CNE, the country’ s state news agency AIM reported.

At the end of Monday’s talks, the heads of the two delegations, Transport Minister Gabriel Muthisse, and senior Renamo parliamentarian, Saimone Macuiana, announced the CNE’s expansion to 17 members, with representatives from all three parliamentary parties, the ruling Frelimo Party, Renamo and the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), and from civil society organisations, without giving further details of how the 17 seats would be divided between the three parties and the civil society representatives.

The current law stipulating a 13-member CNE was passed in 2012, by the votes of the Frelimo and MDM parliamentary groups, with the Renamo deputies voting against.

The next sitting of the Assembly is scheduled to begin on February 19, and the electoral law is believed be one of the top points on its agenda.

Muthisse said the two sides have also agreed on the participation of five Mozambican observers in future dialogue sessions, but he declined to name them.

While, according to the latest issue of the independent weekly “Savana”, the five are Anglican bishop Dinis Sengulane, the Vice- Chancellor of the Polytechnic University Lourenco do Rosario, the former Vice-Chancellor of Maputo’s Eduardo Mondlane University Filipe Couto, the Islamic cleric Saide Abibo, and pastor Anastacio Chembele.

As for Renamo’s demand for foreign mediation, “We also reached consensus that international observers, facilitators and negotiators would not be necessary,” said Muthisse.

Military conflicts continued between Renamo and the defence and security forces for most of 2013, leaving dozens of deaths and hundreds of residents displaced. —Xinhua.

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