Africa-Press – Mozambique. Ossufo Momade, the leader of Mozambique’s main opposition party, Renamo, on Saturday rejected the definitive results from the 11 October municipal elections, that were announced on Friday by the Constitutional Council, the country’s highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law.
Previously the Renamo protests had mostly been led by Renamo’s mayoral candidates in Maputo, Venancio Mondlane, and in Quelimane, Manuel de Araujo. Immediately after the announcement of the results, Mondlane declared that the “Constitutional Council has joined the bandits”.
Now Momade himself, in a Saturday press conference rejected the results. He claimed they had been manipulated by the ruling Frelimo Party, and by the National Elections Commission (CNE), its executive body the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE), by the Constitutional Council itself, and by the police.
“Faced with this disgrace for democracy and the denial of the will of Mozambicans, Renamo reiterates that it does not recognize the results announced”, declared Momade, cited by the independent television station, STV.
Hence the Constitutional Council’s announcement is unlikely to bring to an end the wave of Renamo street demonstrations against the results. Momade encouraged the protestors to continue their demonstrations – which seems to demolish the theory that there is a split between Momade and the younger generation of Renamo leaders such as Mondlane and Araujo.
Since there can be no appeal against decisions of the Constitutional Council, Momade threatened to take Renamo’s case to international institutions.
“Our demand is simply to respect the people’s will which has been seriously injured”, he said. “We take no responsibility for what may happen”.
The Constitutional Council overturned the fraudulent preliminary results which the CNE had announced in several municipalities. This gave victory to Renamo in the municipalities of Quelimane, Chiure, Alto Molocue and Vilankulo, which had previously been allocated to Frelimo.
It also ordered a recount in four other municipalities (Marromeu, Nacala, Gurue and Milange), which could easily result in these four towns also falling into Renamo’s hands.
In Maputo and the neighbouring city of Matola, the Council took tens of thousand of votes which the CNE had illicitly attributed to Frelimo and gave them back to the opposition. But this was not enough to deprive Frelimo of overall control of the Maputo and Matola municipal council,
Renamo insists that it won in 21 of the 65 municipalities, including Maputo and Matola – and it says it has the polling station results sheets (“editais”) that prove this.
Renamo’s copies of the Maputo editais have been posted on the Internet – but neither the CNE nor the Constitutional Council have made public the results sheets on which they based their results.
As has happened in previous elections, the Council changed the results with a complete lack of transparency, refusing to explain why it made its decisions.
It would be a simple matter for the Council to post the editais it used on a dedicated website, thus allowing the political parties and members of the public to compare the Council’s editais with those posted by Renamo.
The Council altered the preliminary results in nine municipalities. In every case the Renamo vote increased (even if it did not win), and the Frelimo vote shrank.
This raises the question – what would have happened if the Council had re-checked the results sheets in all the other municipalities?
The CNE met on Sunday, behind closed doors, to discuss the date for re-running the elections in Marromeu, Nacala, Milange and Gurue. The CNE’s proposal must go before the Council of Ministers (Cabinet) for approval.
In the case of Marromeu, the Council found that the electoral crimes committed had such an influence on the exercise of the popular will at the ballot box, that it declared the whole election null and void.
In Nacala, Gurue and Milange, the Council ordered the elections to be repeated in several polling stations.
This affects 18 Nacala polling stations where 12,893 voters are registered. In Gurue, the election must be repeated at 12 polling stations, where 8,647 voters are registered. In Milange, only three polling stations must rerun the election. 2,397 voters are registered at these stations.
For More News And Analysis About Mozambique Follow Africa-Press
