The Mozambican Parliament on Tuesday unanimously adopted a new Constitution for the first time since the advent of multiparty politics in the Southern African nation.
All the 250 deputies from the ruling Mozambique Liberation Front and a coalition led by the former rebel Mozambique National Resistance — now the main opposition party — gave a thumbs-up to the new text.
”This text represents the feelings of all the Mozambican people, whose all contributions we humbly took into consideration,” said Hermenegildo Gamito, head of a parliamentary committee entrusted with the Constitution’s revision.
The south-east African country adopted a new Constitution in 1990, which introduced a multiparty system.
The new Constitution adopted on Tuesday will come into force after elections on December 1 and 2 to elect a successor to long-serving President Joaquim Chissano.
It provides for the establishment of a consulting body called the state council, which will advise the president on issues such as the dissolving of Parliament, any declaration of war, whether to declare a state of emergency and the holding of elections.
The council is to be made up by the chairperson of Parliament, the prime minister, the head of the Constitutional Council, an ombudsman, former heads of state, former parliamentary chairpersons and seven eminent citizens.
It also provides for the setting up of provincial assemblies for each of the 10 provinces.
Mozambique emerged from a bitter, 16-year civil war in 1992 that devastated the economy and left one million dead. — Sapa-AFP