MOZAMBIQUE: NATIONAL ASSEMBLY SCRAPS AD HOC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MAPUTO 000591

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SUBJECT: MOZAMBIQUE: NATIONAL ASSEMBLY SCRAPS AD HOC
COMMITTEE ON ELECTORAL REFORM

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Summary
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1. (SBU) Mozambique's National Assembly recently voted in
favor of dissolving the ad-hoc committee on electoral
legislation. The move came after committee chair, Alfredo
Gamito, reported that the group was unable to reach consensus
on the composition of the National Election Council. The
issue of electoral reform will now be addressed by a standing
committee in the National Assembly, also headed by Gamito, by
party vote -- meaning FRELIMO will dictate the result. This
has raised concerns of some donors. End Summary.

Assembly Scraps Electoral Ad-Hoc Committee
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2. (U) On May 4 the FRELIMO majority in Mozambique's National
Assembly, by a vote of 144 to 77, moved to dissolve the
ad-hoc committee established in March 2005 to revise the
country's electoral legislation. The decision was taken
after the committee chair, Alfredo Gamito, declared that the
group was at an impasse on the composition of the National
Election Council (CNE) -- one of at least half a dozen
aspects of the elections process under review by the
committee. Gamito stated that the committee had "achieved
nothing" since it was established more than one year earlier
due to the CNE deadlock and, against dissent by the
opposition RENAMO, moved that the committee be abolished.


3. (SBU) The abolishment of the ad-hoc committee moves
responsibility for revising electoral legislation to a
standing committee in the National Assembly that Gamito
heads, the Committee on Agriculture, Regional Development,
Public Administration and Local Power. There FRELIMO
deputies have ten seats and RENAMO only five (mirroring
FRELIMO's nearly two-thirds hold on the National Assembly).
Decision-making will be done by majority vote -- meaning
FRELIMO will be able to entirely ignore RENAMO input, if it
wishes. Comment: This represents a significant setback for
RENAMO. In the ad-hoc committee, decisions could only be
reached by consensus. End comment.

Finger Pointing
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4. (SBU) The stumbling block was disagreement between FRELIMO
and RENAMO on the number of political party representatives
to sit on the CNE. RENAMO proposed a 17-member body, of
which 16 would be appointed by the parliamentary parties on
the basis of parity (8 for FRELIMO and 8 for RENAMO),with
the final member coming from civil society. FRELIMO took the
other extreme, proposing a 15-member CNE comprised completely
of civil society members. (Comment: In the end, FRELIMO was
reportedly unwilling to grant parity on CNE to RENAMO, which
holds only 90 of the 250 seats in the Assembly. RENAMO
balked at the FRELIMO proposal, stating that civil society
was "entirely under FRELIMO's thumb." End Comment.)


5. (SBU) Both FRELIMO and RENAMO continue to point fingers at
one another. FRELIMO has claimed that RENAMO delegates did
not have the political will or confidence from their leader
to take decisions, and only wanted to "waste time." In a May
18 conversation with Emboff, RENAMO committee member Joao
Alexandre blamed FRELIMO for the stalemate, stating that
FRELIMO brought "completely unacceptable" proposals to the
table on purpose in order to cause the deadlock. He asserted
that the FRELIMO had demonstrated its "dictatorial character"
by voting to abolish the ad-hoc committee, which in his view
could have continued work on other important electoral reform
issues despite the CNE stalemate.

Election Donors Worried
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6. (SBU) The decision to disband the ad-hoc committee has
raised concern within the donor community, which has had to
foot most of the bill for the past three general elections.
In 2004, the EU alone spent nearly USD 30 million on the
December general election. When Mozambique's Constitutional
Council in January 2005 issued a series of recommended
changes to the electoral law to address shortcomings in the
2004 general election -- changes very similar to proposals
made by EU observers, the Carter Center and others monitoring
the election -- the donor community believed the GRM was

MAPUTO 00000591 002.2 OF 002


serious about reform. Now, with changes no longer to be done
by consensus, many are dismayed, worried that the GRM may opt
to act only from narrow FRELIMO interests. In a luncheon
with the Ambassador on May 18, the British High Commissioner
commented that donors would be far more reticent about future
election support if FRELIMO deputies in the committee ignored
last year's recommendations.


7. (SBU) In a May 10 informal donor discussion hosted by
USAID, some donor representatives opined that the stalemate
may have been a stall tactic employed by both parties in
order to force the postponement of the provincial elections
scheduled for late 2007. (Comment: It is commonly believed
that Mozambique will have an extremely difficult time
managing the three consecutive elections scheduled for 2007,
2008 and 2009. Folding the 2007 provincial elections into
either the 2008 municipal or 2009 general elections would buy
the GRM time for better preparation. End Comment.)

Comment: RENAMO Played into FRELIMO's Hand?
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8. (SBU) RENAMO's stubborn insistence on political party
parity appears to have been a serious mis-step. With
electoral reform moving to a "majority rules" environment, it
seems likely that the main opposition party's input will be
far more muted than before. The question now is to what
extent FRELIMO will use its majority power to shape the
electoral law to its advantage. Perhaps RENAMO's strategy is
to force the donor community to police FRELIMO. In any
event, looming ahead is a busy electoral cycle in which
RENAMO clearly will be playing catch up.
La Lime