The President of the Republic (PR) is allegedly violating the Constitution of the Republic of Mozambique (CRM) by not appointing a new Attorney General or reappointing Beatriz Buchili.

According to Center for Public Integrity (CIP)The current Attorney General, Beatriz Buchili, has been out of office for over a month. And the PR has yet to rule on whether or not she will remain in office. CIP reports that the PR should have already decided, as it did with the President of the Supreme Court, Adelino Muchanga.

CIP notes that, in legal terms, the CRM does not limit the number of times the mandate of the PGR can be renewed, but neither does it refer to the possibility of automatic renewal in office. This is what puts the PR in breach of the CRM, it explains.

"Until the PR makes a decision, Beatriz Buchili will remain as PGR, carrying out her duties and making structural decisions outside her mandate. E one of the decisions that Buchili took out of office was the appointment of Deputy Attorney General Gloria Adamo to the post of director of the Central Anti-Corruption Office (GCCC)", writes the CIP.

The NGO recalls that Buchili completed her first term between August 2014 and July 2019. This month and year she was reappointed and "in these terms, the Attorney General's second term ended in July of this year and a new Attorney General should already have been appointed or the current occupant of the position reappointed". In other words, the problem now lies with the PR's failure and delay in taking a position.

According to the CIP, before the end of the mandate of any of the senior members of the judiciary, it is important to know whether they will be replaced or whether they will remain in office and exercise the same functions.

"The PR has the possibility of deciding, in the next few days, to reappoint Buchili or to appoint a new Attorney General. This would mean that the change of Attorney General would take place in the middle of the election period in which the next President of the Republic will be elected. Although there is no legislation that prevents the President of the Republic from appointing heads of state bodies in the middle of an election period, a possible change in the leadership of the Public Prosecutor's Office in the next few days would constitute total disrespect for the institutional reserve that is required of political power at election times," he concludes.