Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy

In the second stage of the dialogue project, the emphasis is on discussing subjects of interest to all electoral stakeholders and evaluating the election process. The discussions are taking the form of four additional dialogue meetings on subjects including Mozambique’s Electoral Code of Conduct; the exchange of information between the Comissão Nacional de Eleições (National Electoral Commission, CNE) and the political parties; and the funding of political parties and campaign financing.

To ensure solid input for these dialogue meetings, reputable Mozambican organisations - including Centro de Estudos Moçambicanos e Internacionais, the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA) and Instituto de Estudos Sociais e Económicos - visited the political parties and investigated their experiences with the above issues. On the basis of the information collected, a series of discussion papers were produced, the contents of which form the basis for dialogue.

On 15 June 2010 the first dialogue meeting was held in Maputo, bringing together political parties, representatives from the CNE and civil society organisations to debate electoral campaign and political party funding. The meeting also dealt with the findings of research carried out by EISA on electoral campaign and political party funding. The meeting was facilitated by Sheik Abdul Carim, the director of Electoral Observatory.

Funding of political parties in Mozambique

One of the main conclusions of the study presented by EISA was that funding plays a very important role in improving the level of organisation of political parties. Therefore, the lack of funding can cause a number of constraints.

A lack of funding reduces the parties’ visibility by limiting their actions; creates constraints in strategy design and the registration of party members; weakens the internal communication networking of parties, especially at the territorial level; and weakens parties’ capacity building and civic education programmes.

The Mozambican electoral law outlines four possibilities in terms of political party funding, namely: members’ contributions, donations and gifts, funds from the State Budget (SB) and other sources. Funding through the SB has caused some disagreements, as it is allocated according to a party’s representation in the parliament. In general the political parties with representation in parliament accept the criteria as fair, while extra-parliamentarian political parties find the criteria endanger their survival.

One of the suggestions made during the meeting was that, apart from the number of seats in the parliament, political party funding should take into account other alternative criteria such as inclusivity and the percentage of votes received by each party.

Funding for electoral campaigns

Regarding the funding of electoral campaigns through public funds, most extra-parliamentarian political parties argued that the present model of funding gives double benefit to the two parties represented in the parliament, namely Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Frelimo) and Resistência Nacional Moçambicana-União Eleitoral (Renamo-UE). It was also pointed out that these two parties receive funds for being in parliament and also share the one-third of the amount allocated through the SB to political parties.

The indirect constraints that affect party funding include the high cost of the electoral process in Mozambique, and the fact that donors only give support to the State. In addition, the present funding model doesn’t include the training and support of parties’ electoral observers during the electoral process. Finally, there is a lack of equality in party funding.

Main recommendations

Attendees at the meeting recommended that the law should extend the period between the verification of candidates’ applications and the election campaign, as well as the establishment of a legal period for the fund provision. Accountability was also seen as an important issue, with a possibly greater role for Administrative Courts being seen as desirable. It was also suggested that the responsibilities of the CNE could be reduced, at least in terms of regulating the sharing of funds among political parties and supervising the accountability process.

Before closing the meeting, the attendees expressed their appreciation for the study presented by EISA, which they considered to be clear and rich in terms of information. It was able to capture the large diversity of views of the different political parties regarding the funding mechanisms. The attendees also appreciated the good atmosphere in which the debate took place.

The next meeting will be held on 15 July 2010, on the subject of dialogue and information-sharing mechanisms between the CNE and political parties.

Read more about NIMD's Mozambique programme.