The Center for Public Integrity (CIP) reveals that the candidacy of Stella Pinto Novo Zeca for Mayor of Beira, in Sofala, violates the Law that approves the legal framework for the election of members of municipal bodies (Law no. 7/2018, of August 3), because she is a representative of the State.

Currently, in Sofala province, Stella Pinto Novo Zeca serves as Secretary of State (SE), and has already been put forward as a candidate for the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) party.

The CIP believes that these factors give him an advantage over the other candidates because he has state resources at his disposal to promote his candidacy. "This therefore constitutes an unequal political playing field compared to the other candidates."

According to the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), Sella Zeca must resign as SE of Sofala.

"As soon as the Frelimo party formalized its candidacy, by submitting it to the electoral bodies, Stella Zeca should, on that occasion, have requested the suspension of the functions of secretary of state in Sofala province," says CIP, noting that the act should take place before the President of the Republic.

On the other hand, the National Electoral Commission (CNE) should have rejected Stella Zeca's candidacy because she had not requested her suspension as an SE.

"Thus, considering that Stella Zeca did not enclose the document requesting her suspension from her duties as secretary of state in Sofala province, it was up to the CNE, unofficially, as the body primarily responsible for applying the law that approves the legal framework for the election of members of municipal bodies, to reject the candidacy presented by the party. By approving Stella Zeca's candidacy, the CNE has shirked its legitimately conferred duties of electoral management, under the terms of the aforementioned law1," we read.

And the CIP concludes: "The CNE, by having chosen not to reject Zeca's candidacy, when the law that approves the legal framework for the election of members of municipal bodies determines incompatibilities, opens the door to the raising of old suspicions and mistrust about the impartiality of the institutions that take care of electoral management in Mozambique, thus compromising the transparency and fairness of electoral processes in the country."