Constitutional: deadline on Mondlane's party has not expired

The Mozambican Constitutional Council (CC) refused to consider the appeal in which politician Venâncio Mondlane claims that the Ministry of Justice exceeded the deadline for assessing his party's registration application, denying that it was exceeded.
In the CC ruling dated July 14, consulted by Lusa, the seven advisory judges “abstain from hearing the appeal due to lack of purpose”, regarding the case in which the Minister of Justice, Constitutional and Religious Affairs is “appellee”.
“Today, July 4, we submitted an appeal to the Constitutional Council,” Venâncio Mondlane announced that day in a note published on his official Facebook account, stating that the Ministry of Justice had not considered, “within the legal deadline,” the registration request of the National Alliance for a Free and Autonomous Mozambique (Anamalala) party.
Venâncio Mondlane's appeal recalls that the request to form his political party was submitted to that ministry on April 3, followed by a request to "address irregularities identified in the process" and that the last information was provided on June 6, claiming that the lack of response from the ministry since then would imply a "tactical rejection".
The ministry, in its submission to the CC, states that the case " is being properly handled and is well advanced for a final response, therefore, this appeal must be dismissed ." For the CC, the need to request new elements implies the suspension of the legal deadline for issuing the opinion, which is up to 60 days, the count of which "restarts."
“In other words, it starts to count from June 6, 2025, which means that the Ministry of Justice is within the period within which it has the power to decide the case on appeal,” reads the ruling, adding: “And, by virtue of the principle of separation of powers, this body cannot usurp the powers of another body of State power, until it makes a decision, from which the right to appeal allegedly exercised here may eventually emerge.”
In a ministry letter, signed by Minister Mateus Saíze, dated May 28 and previously reported by Lusa, it is stated that the term “Anamalala”, a proposed acronym for the National Alliance for a Free and Autonomous Mozambique, comes from the Macua language, spoken in Nampula, in the north of the country, “and therefore already carries a linguistic meaning for the communication of those who express themselves in it”.
The ministry then gave a 30-day deadline to change the acronym, counting from the publication of that document by the Mozambican justice institution.
Anamalala means “it will end” or “ it’s over ”, an expression used by Venâncio Mondlane during the campaign for the general elections of October 9, 2024 and which became popular during the protests he called in the following months, when he did not recognize the results of the vote.
The ruling added that the statutes of the party that Venâncio Mondlane intends to create “do not fit into the concept of principles nor are they aligned” with the Constitution of the Republic or the Law on Political Parties, also requesting correction.
The Minister of Justice met on June 9, in Maputo, with a delegation of the former presidential candidate to evaluate the process of legalizing the political force.
Mozambique has experienced a climate of strong social unrest since the October elections, with demonstrations and strikes called by Mondlane, who rejects the election results that gave victory to Daniel Chapo, supported by the ruling Frelimo party.
According to non-governmental organizations monitoring the electoral process, around 400 people lost their lives as a result of clashes with the police, conflicts that ceased after a meeting between Mondlane and Chapo on March 23, repeated on May 20, with a view to pacifying the country.
observador