Abdul Carimo appointed chairperson of CNE

This was a legal formality, since on Wednesday the CNE had elected Carimo its chairperson by nine votes to two.

Under the electoral law, the chairperson must be one of the CNE members nominated by civil society organizations. There are only three of these – Carimo, nominated by the Centre for Democracy and Development Studies (CEDE), Paulo Cuinica, one of the candidates from the Electoral Observatory, a coalition of religious bodies and NGOs, and Rabia Valigy, proposed by the Association for the Struggle against Poverty (a body that could charitably be described as invisible). Both Cuinica and Valigy were also members of the outgoing CNE.

Initially, all three said they would stand for the post of chairperson, but Valigy then dropped out for “personal reasons”. In the Wednesday vote, only two CNE members cast their vote for Cuinica.

Carimo is the General Secretary of the Islamic Council of Mozambique (CISLAMO), which is one of the component parts of the Electoral Observatory. He has also been Executive Director of the Observatory. Strangely enough Carimo was not on the list of 16 candidates for the CNE submitted by the Observatory.

When he was elected on Wednesday, Carimo declared that his greatest challenge will be to ensure that this year’s municipal elections and the 2014 general elections are held in a peaceful climate, and that they respect the Mozambican Constitution.

“I hope that the elections will be calm”, he said, adding that he did not want to see the CNE accused of favouritism towards any particular candidate or political party.

The CNE consists of eight members from the parliamentary parties (five appointed by the ruling Frelimo Party, two by the main opposition force, the former rebel movement Renamo, and one by the Mozambique Democratic Movement, MDM), three from civil society, a judge appointed by the Higher Council of the Judicial Magistracy, and an attorney appointed by the Higher Council of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

But the two seats for Renamo remain vacant. Renamo has announced that it will boycott the elections and has so far refused to appoint its CNE members.

Carimo predicted that Renamo will eventually change its position, and take up its seats. “I believe that Renamo will come to the CNE”, he said. “I don’t see any other scenario”.