Prevalência dos desafios da realização das eleições distritais em Moçambique à luz do modelo de governação descentralizada aprovado pela lei n.o 11/2023, de 23 de Agosto

Abstract

With the specific revision of the Constitution operated through Law No. 1/2018, of June 12, 2018, provincial and district decentralized governance entities and local authorities were introduced. Provincial decentralized governance materialized in 2019, in the context of the holding of elections for the election of members of the Provincial Assembly and Provincial Governors, with the holding of district elections scheduled for 2024 as provided for in no. 3 of art. 311 of the Constitution of the Republic. After three years of the experience of provincial decentralized governance, the call for in-depth reflection on the feasibility of holding the 2024 district elections was officially launched. This call immediately gave rise to the emergence of several debates and reflections by multiple actors (actors government politicians, academics, political parties, civil society, etc.) which later led to the specific review of the 2018 Constitution, to postpone the first district elections in 2024, “until conditions are created”, operated through the Law no. 11/2023, of 23 August, largely influenced by the administrative and financial reasons of the three decentralized entities in coordination with each other, on the one hand, and in conjunction with the State representation services in the province, on the other hand. Therefore, this monograph questions to what extent just postponing the holding of district elections resolves the prevalence of administrative and financial challenges highlighted in the current model of decentralized governance in Mozambique?