Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), the country’s second largest opposition party, on Thursday said that its parallel count shows that Renamo has won the municipal election in the southern city of Matola.
The head of the MDM list of candidates for the Matola Municipal Assembly, Augusto Pelembe, told reporters that, on a count of 95 per cent of the polling stations. Renamo had won 59 per cent of the vote, the ruling Frelimo Party 30 per cent, and the MDM itself 11 per cent.
Although the result does not look particularly good for the MDM, Pelembe said it would mean a rise in the number of MDM members of the municipal assembly from the current two to eight or nine.
If accurate, this result means that the next mayor of Matola will be Renamo’s Antonio Muchanga, who is currently a senior figure in the Renamo parliamentary group. It will also be a serious setback for Frelimo, whose candidate for mayor is the current governor of Maputo province, Julio Parruque.
A parallel count in Maputo city, reported by Radio Mozambique, has confirmed the victory claimed by Renamo. With 90 per cent of the vote counted, Renamo had 52.22 per cent, Frelimo 39.6 per cent, and the MDM 6.57 per cent.
These results have yet to be confirmed by the electoral bodies, who are hamstrung by the lengthy procedures demanded by the legislation. The results sheets (“editais”) from the polling stations first go to the district branches of the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE).
The district STAEs announce their results which must then be tabulated at provincial level. The provincial results are supposed to be announced by next Monday, 16 October.
But these are not definitive, until confirmed by the Constitutional Council, Mozambique’s highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law.
These multiple stages of counting mean that the final results of the municipal elections may not be known until a fortnight or more after the electorate have cast their votes.
Since the polling station results sheets are public documents, doubts and tensions could be dissipated, if STAE had the legal obligation to post them all on a website. But it does not have any such obligation, and it seems to be in the interests of some people to keep the results secret for as long as possible.
The three main political parties also receive copies of the results sheets, and there is nothing to stop the parties from posting them on their own websites. But they have chosen not to do so.
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