Africa-Press – Cape verde. The leader of Renamo, the largest opposition party in Mozambique, Venâncio Mondlane, this Thursday claimed victory in Wednesday’s local elections in Maputo, the Mozambican capital, led by Frelimo.
Mozambique/Elections: Renamo candidate claims victory in Maputo
“This victory is not mine, but ours. It is a powerful reminder that when we come together in pursuit of a common goal, we are capable of achieving extraordinary things”, said Venâncio Mondlane, in a statement entitled “Maputo city rescued”.
Despite this claim, there continues to be no official statement on the results of these elections, across the country, by the Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE) or the National Elections Commission (CNE).
“I am here to represent you, your voices and concerns. You trusted me to lead, and I promise I will not take that trust lightly. I will work tirelessly to make our hopes and dreams come true, to create a better place for all of us”, said Venância Mondlane.
Meanwhile, the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) has already announced that it will hold a “caravan” through the capital this afternoon, “in gratitude to the citizens” for voting.
The municipal elections on October 11th, the sixth that the country organizes, were marked in the capital by the failure to re-candidate the current president of the Municipal Council of the City of Maputo, the ‘veteran’ Eneias Comiche, 84 years old, elected by the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo).
Economist with a long political CV and who, in addition to being a mayor, has also been a minister and governor of the central bank, among other positions, his absence, in an electoral campaign on the ground since September 26th, left everything open for the electoral dispute in the capital .
In these elections, Frelimo presented Razaque Manhique as head of the list, a 41-year-old jurist from the grassroots of the party in power: he was first secretary of the Frelimo committee in the City of Maputo, vice-president of the Maputo Municipal Assembly and head of Frelimo bench in that organization.
Venâncio Mondlane, 49 years old, is a forestry engineer and deputy in parliament, being classified by his supporters as VM7 – the CR7 of Mozambican politics, in an allusion to Cristiano Ronaldo.
Mondlane is trying in these elections, once again, to “rescue Maputo”, as stated in its slogan, after being defeated in the 2018 ballot with 36.43% of the votes, against 56.95% for the Frelimo candidate.
Venâncio Mondlane left the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), the third parliamentary party, for Renamo in 2018, in one of several unprecedented movements of candidates in local elections in Mozambique that year.
The sixth local elections in Mozambique took place in 65 municipalities across the country on Wednesday, with the polls closing at 6pm local time (5pm in Lisbon).
Just over 4.8 million voters were able to vote in these elections, with the spokesperson for the Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE), Regina Matsinhe, assuring that it was a “vote was orderly and peaceful”, although pointing out “incidences along the day”.
STAE does not provide concrete deadlines for publishing results, other than those set out in legislation. Thus, during the night a partial count was carried out at each table, which can have up to 800 voters, and the respective notice was published at the door, followed by the intermediate municipal count, at the district level, within a period of up to three days after the vote, and then, within five days, the centralization of the results by province.
The National Elections Commission then has a deadline of up to 15 days after the vote to publish the final results.
“The truth is that it is necessary to meet the deadlines”, emphasized the STAE spokesperson, to Lusa.
Mozambican voters were asked to choose 65 new presidents of the Municipal Councils and elected to the Municipal Assemblies, including 12 new municipalities approved by the Council of Ministers in October 2022, which join 53 already existing ones, for a total of 1,747 members to be elected.
In the 2018 local elections, the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo, in power) won in 44 of the 53 local councils and the opposition in just nine, the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) in eight and the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM) in one.
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