The Republic of Mozambique, which gained independence from Portugal in 1975, has a mixed legal system of Portuguese civil law and customary law. The first constitution was adopted in 1975 and the most recent constitution in 2004.
The President is the Head of State while the Prime Minister is the Head of Government. The legislature, a unicameral Assembly, holds the authority to pass laws. The Assembly is made up of 250 Members of Parliament (MPs), who are directly elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms. The most recent Parliamentary elections were held in October 2014 and the next ones are due in 2019.
Individual MPs, political groups within Parliament and other governmental institutions have the right to introduce legislation in the Assembly. Formal consideration of a legislative proposal requires it to be submitted to the president of the Assembly, after which the text will be presented to the relevant Parliamentary committees. After the committee discussion, the proposal is circulated amongst all MPs, followed by a debate between the representatives of the political parties. The working committees then summarise the main aspects of these discussions before sending the bill to the plenary.
Legislative proposals are subjected to two readings in different plenary sessions and require the approval of at least half of the MPs present in these sessions. If it wins a majority support, the legislation is then signed by the president of the Assembly before being sent to the President. The President has 30 days to consider the Bill, with the possibility of referring it to the Constitutional Council to verify its constitutional validity. With the presidential assent, the Bill comes into force as law once published in the Official Gazette.