Parties disagree on election committee

Mozambique's two main political parties have been unable to agree on changes to electoral laws ahead of legislative elections due next year.

For over two years a parliamentary ad-hoc commission has worked on the laws. But it has been unable to achieve consensus on how the body that supervises the elections - the National Elections Commission (NEC) - should take decisions, the Mozambique News Agency reported.

The country's main opposition party, the former rebel RENAMO movement, had demanded that a two-thirds majority should be necessary for any decision on the NEC. The ruling FRELIMO party has rejected this, and said that a simple majority should be sufficient.

Meanwhile, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) said it was ready to assist in the running of the elections, but was awaiting a request from the government.

UNDP Assistant Resident Representative Henny Matos told IRIN that UNDP had been "expecting a request for some time".

"We have said to the Mozambican authorities that we are ready to assist whenever we get a request. A lot of hardware has already been brought in, and it will very much depend on their request [what the UN contribution would be]. I would guess that we could do something on the training side, and some support on the planning. I think we should get something [from government] fairly soon, as elections are going to happen mid-next year," Matos said.