Africa-Press – Mozambique. Former presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane submitted an appeal to the Mozambican Constitutional Council (CC) this Thursday, in the belief that the Ministry of Justice has already exceeded the deadline to review and approve his party.
On June 6, Venâncio Mondlane submitted an appeal to the Ministry of Justice, Constitutional and Religious Affairs with responses to the government’s demands, including the change of his party’s acronym, Anamalala, which has now been changed to Anamola, and other requests to be addressed. He now indicates that, since that date, the deadline to respond to the request has expired, and is therefore submitting an appeal to the CC.
The document states that an appeal is being filed against the Ministry of Justice’s decision for “tacit rejection”, after it exceeded the 60-day deadline to respond to the party’s formalization request and remained silent.
It adds that, “since the appellant submitted to the respondent on June 6th a complaint regarding irregularities related to the party’s registration request (…) and a request for correction of the central registry’s error in the certificate (…), in conjunction with the provisions of the July 14th ruling, and having failed to rule within the 60-day deadline, that is, by August 4th, the appeal is subject to a tacit rejection,” the document reads.
The Constitutional Council had already refused to consider the appeal in which politician Venâncio Mondlane alleged that the Ministry of Justice exceeded the deadline for reviewing his party’s registration request, denying that it had exceeded the deadline.
In the CC ruling, the seven judges “abstain from hearing the appeal due to lack of purpose”, regarding the case in which the Minister of Justice, Constitutional and Religious Affairs is “appellee”.
In late May, the Ministry of Justice, Constitutional and religious Affairs gave a 30-day deadline to change the acronym, starting from the publication of that document by the Mozambican justice institution.
In a letter from the ministry, signed by Minister Mateus Saíze and dated May 28, it is stated that the term “Anamalala,” the proposed acronym for the National Alliance for a Free and Autonomous Mozambique, comes from the Macua language, spoken in Nampula, in the north of the country, “and therefore already carries linguistic meaning for the communication of those who speak it”.
Anamalala means “it will end” or “it’s over”, an expression used by Venâncio Mondlane during the campaign for the general elections of October 9, 2024, and which became popular during the protests he called in the following months, when he refused to recognize the election results.
The ruling adds that the statutes of the party Venâncio Mondlane intends to create “do not fit the concept of principles nor are they aligned” with the Constitution of the Republic or the Law on Political Parties, also requesting their correction.
In response to government demands, Mondlane changed the acronym to Anamola, maintaining the meaning of National Alliance for a Free and Autonomous Mozambique.
“It is hereby emphasized once again that the acronym Anamalala has been set aside, overcoming in a defeated and unconvinced manner the question of the faithful correspondence of the party’s name,” the document states, emphasizing that with the new acronym Anamola”, any possibility of association with any ethnic group in Mozambique is ruled out”.
Since the elections, Mozambique has experienced a climate of intense social unrest, with demonstrations and strikes called by Mondlane, who rejects the election results that gave victory to Daniel Chapo, supported by the ruling Frelimo party, with a death toll of around 400, according to non-governmental organizations monitoring the electoral process.
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