{"id":425611,"date":"2011-05-17T14:56:59","date_gmt":"2011-05-17T14:56:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/05\/17\/chairperson-of-constitutional-council-ratified\/"},"modified":"2011-05-17T14:56:59","modified_gmt":"2011-05-17T14:56:59","slug":"chairperson-of-constitutional-council-ratified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/17\/chairperson-of-constitutional-council-ratified\/","title":{"rendered":"Chairperson of Constitutional Council Ratified"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Agencia<\/a><\/p>\n

17 May 2011<\/p>\n

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Maputo \u2014 The Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Tuesday ratified, by an overwhelming majority, the appointment of Hermenegildo Gamito as chairperson of the Constitutional Council, the country’s highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law.<\/p>\n

Gamito was appointed by President Armando Guebuza after his disgraced predecessor, Luis Mondlane, resigned on 17 March.<\/p>\n

Mondlane’s resignation followed the exposure in the Mozambican press of his use of Council funds for his personal expenditure, including paying off the mortgage on a luxury house. Mondlane is currently facing disciplinary, and possibly criminal, proceedings for the alleged abuse of his office for personal gain.<\/p>\n

The 67 year old Gamito trained in law, receiving his law degree from the Classical University of Lisbon. He taught fiscal and customs law at Maputo’s Eduardo Mondlane University, and was a judge on the Higher Appeals Court, the predecessor to today’s Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

But in recent years Gamito has been better known for business activities. He has sat on the board of several public and private companies. He was once the chairperson of the state-owned People’s Development Bank, and is currently the chairperson of First National Bank-Mozambique, and of the Mozambican Association of Banks.<\/p>\n

He sat in the Assembly of the Republic for 15 years (from 1994 to 2009) as a deputy for the ruling Frelimo Party, and chaired the ad-hoc parliamentary commission that produced the constitutional amendments of 2004.<\/p>\n

Despite his membership of Frelimo, neither of the opposition parliamentary groups, from the former rebel movement Renamo, and from the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), opposed ratifying his appointment.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the Assembly’s Constitutional and Legal Affairs Commission, including its opposition members, unanimously proposed that the appointment be ratified. When the Commission interviewed Gamito, he promised to resign from, or suspend his participation in, all activities that are incompatible with membership of the Constitutional Council.<\/p>\n

Thus Gamito has suspended his membership of the Mozambican Bar Association, and provided the Commission with a declaration from the office of the Frelimo General Secretary, Filipe Paunde, stating that he has ceased to perform any duties within Frelimo.<\/p>\n

During his hearing before the Commission, Gamito said he would work to restore dignity to the Constitutional Council, prioritizing team work and the achievement of consensus.<\/p>\n

In the brief debate following the presentation of the Commission’s recommendation, Renamo deputy Saimone Macuiana gave a guarded welcome to Gamito’s appointment, but warned that Gamito “must not consider himself above the law, as happened with Mondlane, who did everything without consulting his colleagues”.<\/p>\n

“We want the Constitutional Council to work on the basis of the Constitution and the laws”, said Macuiana. He urged Gamito “to act with impartiality”.<\/p>\n

But there was quite a different Renamo position from Macuiana’s colleague, Armindo Milaco, who launched an attack on Gamito for allegedly bankrupting the companies he had headed in the 1980s and 90s. But Milaco ran out of time before he could finish his volley of insults, and was cut short by the Assembly chairperson, Veronica Macamo.<\/p>\n

As is normal with the appointment or ratification of named individuals, a secret ballot was held. 198 of the 219 deputies present voted in favour of ratifying Gamito’s appointment, and 18 voted against. Two blank ballots were cast and one vote was invalid.<\/p>\n

Since only 168 of the 191 Frelimo deputies were present, at least 30 opposition deputies must have voted in favour of ratification.<\/p>\n

It is impossible to tell who voted against Gamito – but it is reasonable to conclude that these 18 votes came from Renamo members who did not accept the qualified support that the Renamo parliamentary leadership gave to Gamito.<\/p>\n

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\nChairperson of Constitutional Council Ratified<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

17 May 2011 Maputo \u2014 The Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Tuesday ratified, by an overwhelming majority, the appointment of Hermenegildo Gamito as chairperson of the Constitutional Council, the country’s highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law. Gamito was appointed by President Armando Guebuza after his disgraced predecessor, Luis Mondlane, resigned on 17 March. Mondlane’s resignation followed the exposure in the Mozambican press of his use of Council funds for his personal expenditure, including paying off the mortgage on a luxury house<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-425611","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\nChairperson of Constitutional Council Ratified - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/17\/chairperson-of-constitutional-council-ratified\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Chairperson of Constitutional Council Ratified - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"17 May 2011 Maputo \u2014 The Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Tuesday ratified, by an overwhelming majority, the appointment of Hermenegildo Gamito as chairperson of the Constitutional Council, the country's highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law. 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