Mozambique: July Political Digest

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SUBJECT: Mozambique: July Political Digest

REF: A) Maputo 591

B) 05 Maputo 1158

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1. (U) This is a brief summary of significant political
events in Mozambique during July 2006. We provide it as a
supplement to our other reporting. The items discussed are:

-- RENAMO Members Switching to FRELIMO
-- Provincial Elections Unlikely in 2007
-- Gay Rights Surfaces as Issue in Media
-- Mozambique Sends Personnel to Monitor Congo Elections

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RENAMO Members Switching to FRELIMO
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2. (U) On July 29 a former parliamentarian from Maputo,
Adelina Matule, announced that she had left the main
opposition party, RENAMO, and was joining the ruling party,
FRELIMO, according to press reports. She and 16 other
former RENAMO members were admitted to FRELIMO in a ceremony
that day at the FRELIMO provincial headquarters in the
Maputo suburb of Matola. This past April a RENAMO
politician who lost the contentious 2005 election for mayor
of the northern town of Mocimboa da Praia (ref B) announced
that he was joining FRELIMO.


3. (U) RENAMO politicians have attacked FRELIMO over these
and other defections over the past several months, claiming
that FRELIMO is bribing RENAMO members to leave and doing so
with state funds. A senior RENAMO official stated Matule
was given USD 2,400 to switch parties, according to a press
report August 3. FRELIMO politicians reject the charges as
baseless and attribute the defections to growing
disorganization within RENAMO.

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Provincial Elections Unlikely in 2007
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4. On July 8 the head of the Electoral Administration
(STAE),Antonio Carrasco, told reporters that he was worried
that Mozambique's first provincial elections - mandated
under the constitution to be held in 2007 - would have to be
put off because of delays in approving a new electoral law.
Negotiations in the National Assembly between the two major
political parties, FRELIMO and RENAMO, broke down in early
May when the ad hoc committee established for revising the
law, which had gotten nowhere in more than a year of
discussions, was abolished (ref A). There has been little
movement since May in an Assembly committee assigned the
electoral law. And without a new electoral law, no action
has been taken on establishing voter registration
procedures; a new registration of voters would be necessary
before provincial elections could be held, according to
Carrasco.


5. Carrasco instead suggested that provincial elections be
postponed so that they would coincide with presidential and
legislative elections scheduled to be held in 2009. (Note:
Mozambique is to hold municipal elections, for the second
time, in 2008. End note.) Meanwhile, the semi-official
main newspaper, Noticias, has run several stories in recent
weeks quoting various public figures as saying that
provincial elections should not or could not be held in

2007.

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Gay Rights Surfaces as Issue in Media
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6. For the first time, a major Mozambican paper has
published an article arguing in favor of gay rights.
Prominent Radio Mozambique journalist Emilio Manhique argued
that gays "have a right to be different" in an editorial he
wrote in early July in the Beira daily "Diario de
Mozambique." Earlier he took up the issue in his phone-in
program "Caf de Manha," a half-hour long morning radio
program. He took 23 calls in the half hour, a record for
listener participation, according to press reports.


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Mozambique Sends Personnel to Monitor Congo Elections
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7. Mozambican Defense Minister Dai told reporters on July 19

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that twelve Mozambicans had been dispatched to the
Democratic Republic of the Congo as part of the Southern
African Development Community (SADC) election monitoring
contingent. The twelve were ten soldiers and two civilians.
National elections took place in the Congo on July 30.
Other SADC countries also contributed personnel and
logistical equipment.

Dudley