Africa-Press – Mozambique. Mozambique’s National Elections Commission (CNE) has promised that it will be “implacable” towards all polling station staff involved in criminal activity.
In a statement read out to the media on Tuesday, CNE spokesperson Paulo Cuinica claimed that voting in the municipal elections last Wednesday took place “in an orderly and peaceful manner, leaving aside irregularities noted in some polling stations”.
But as the count of the votes began “there were increasing reports of irregularities, which constituted genuine electoral crimes”.
Cuinica said the serious nature of these offences was such that the CNE could not deal with them. It was the district or city courts that had the power to rule on protests and counter-protests that were not satisfied at the polling stations or the district elections commissions.
These court rulings, he added, can be appealed to the Constitutional Council, the country’s highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law. The CNE was merely notified of the Constitutional Council’s decisions.
The polling station results are all sent to the district election commissions which undertake the “intermediate count”. The results are then passed on to the provincial elections commissions. Cuinica stressed that all the results presented so far are district counts.
The CNE is now receiving “the provincial centralization processes”, which will be analysed in the presence of observers and political party monitors. Once that work is done, the documents are sent on to the Constitutional Council for validation and proclamation of the results.
The results must be published within 15 days of the close of polls – that is, by 26 October.
All the abuses that had taken place during the count “are deserving of our attention, in order to obtain an outcome from the competent authorities”, he said.
Cuinica stressed that the CNE will show no tolerance “towards our own members and electoral agents who disturbed the way the elections unfolded. That’s what the law demands”.
“All members of the polling station staff involved in illicit practices, will be held responsible, if there is proof of their behavior”, he promised.
In particular, measures will be taken against those polling station chairpersons who refused to sign the results sheets. “They will have to explain themselves and will be held responsible administratively”, said Cuinica.
He added that the CNE will continue to work with other stakeholders in the elections “to clear up the irregularities they have become aware of, during their monitoring”.
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