Africa-Press – Mozambique. Mozambican President Daniel Chapo has invited former presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane to take his seat on the Council of State, but Mondlane has not yet decided whether to accept the invitation.
The Council of State is a body that advises the President of the Republic. A seat on the Council is reserved for the runner-up in the latest presidential election.
According to the Constitutional Council, the highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law, Mondlane came second in the October 2024 election. Mondlane, however, insists that the official results are fraudulent and that, in reality, he won. He has taken to calling himself “the President elected by the people”.
It is impossible to judge the competing claims of Chapo and Mondlane, since no credible national parallel count of the election results was ever held. The only way to confirm who won the presidential election would be through the results sheets from each of the thousands of polling stations, and these have never been published.
Despite his claims of victory, Mondlane has not released his copies of the results sheets that could prove this. Even worse, the Constitutional Council refused to order a recount. The Council altered the initial results released by the National Elections Commission (CNE), but did not explain why.
It took many thousands of votes away from Chapo and gave them to Mondlane, making the result marginally more credible. The Council quite explicitly stated that it changed the result in order to avoid a recount.
The original ballot papers have now been incinerated, making it impossible to reconstitute the polling station results.
The fraudulent results led to an explosion of anger. In the ensuing anger, over 300 people lost their lives – all because the seven judges on the Constitutional Council refused to hold a recount.
First meeting this Tuesday
The first meeting of the new Council of State will be held on 24 June (Tuesday), with Chapo chairing. According to a release from Chapo’s office, the meting will approve an agenda for the future work of the Council, and discuss the commemorations of the 50th anniversary of Mozambican independence. The anniversary celebrations are scheduled for next Wednesday, 25 June, so the Council could not change them, even if it wanted to.
The meeting will also be briefed on how the Council of State operates, and its members will introduce themselves.
In a broadcast on his Facebook page, Mondlane said that, although the election results give him the right to a seat on the Council, he has not yet decided whether to accept it.
He said that would depend on whether the government has complied with its human rights promises. He would only take a final decision after discussing the matter with his advisers.
It is hard to see how boycotting the Council of State could possibly benefit Mondlane, since it would merely deprive him of a platform.
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