Africa-Press – Mozambique. Presidential candidates
Frelimo has delayed until May its special Central Committee to choose its presidential candidate. There are major divisions within the party, no short list and no obvious front-runner. Legal action by Venâncio Mondlane forced Renamo head Ossufo Momade to agree a party congress on 15-16 May to choose a candidate.
Momade is seen as a weak leader, but he controls the party machine.. He is challenged by Mondlane, who gained the most votes to be mayor of Maputo but was denied victory by the Constitutional Council, and Elias Dhlakama, the brother of former party leader Afonso Dhlakama. Mondlane is seen as younger, more electable, and not linked to the 1980s war. Dhlakama has support of some former guerrillas.
Ossufo Momade said for the first time Wednesday, in an interview on CIPCast, that he will run again for the presidency of Renamo for another five years (see video below). He says next May’s congress will prove that he still enjoys the support of Renamo members and that the “parrots” – a clear reference to Venâncio Mondlane and Elias Dhlakama – are wrong.
Here we go again:
Electoral authorities are repeating the misconduct of last’s year municipal elections, registering Frelimo voters first the then when they get to opposition voters waiting in the queue, the registration machine “breaks down”. And CIP correspondents have been denied press credentials in four provinces. And as in last year’s registration, the fraud is brazen and done in public.
Zambézia CPE illegally refuses accreditation and returns forms to CIP
The Zambézia Provincial Elections Commission (CPE) on Tuesday (26 March) returned to CIP all the paperwork concerning the accreditation of its correspondents, alleging that the request must specify the districts in which they will work. This is blatantly illegal.
The law is clear: “For observation, the credential should mention the electoral constituency in which the observer will undertake their activity of election observation” (article 253, of Law 8/2023, of 27 February, altered by Law 2/2019, of 31 May). These are general elections and the parliamentary constituency is the province, not the district.
CIP has not yet been accredited in Niassa, Zambézia, Nampula and Maputo provinces. It has been partly accredited in Maputo city, and fully accredited in the remaining provinces (Gaza, Inhambane, Sofala, Manica, Tete and Cabo Delgado).
In Maputo city and province the accreditation process has already lasted for almost a month. In Nampula it has been under way for about 3 weeks.
The model of the CIP letter, send with names of our correspondents to all CPEs, has resulted in the issuing of credentials. Zambézia is the only one to make the illegal demand that CIP should specify the districts. Three are simply not responding.
The decision by the Zambézia CPE may be deliberate, in order to delay still further the accreditation of observers and journalists.
During the municipal elections in Zambézia, CIP faced the same difficulties, and credentials were only issued in the final days of the voter registration. In last year’s municipal elections, Zambézia was one of the provinces where electoral fraud was committed in broad daylight. History is repeating itself with the same actors.
Identity documents from Frelimo members in the neighbourhood of Mulevala-sede EPCs, Zambézia, are bring collected by neighbourhood secretaries, and placed as priorities in the registration posts. Brigade members first register those voters documents are in their hands, relegating the other voters to last place. The priority given to Frelimo members and sympathisers tires the potentially opposition supporters, who then abandon the queue.
MDM monitors in Búzi district, Sofala, say brigade members in the 36 registration posts, in coordination with the neighbourhood secretaries and the village heads, are prioritising members of Frelimo in the registration. The Frelimo voters are accompanied to the registration posts by the village secretaries so that they do not wait in the queues.
The director ZIP number 09,of Derre in Namuno, Cabo Delgado, received calls from the district STAE instructing him to inform the Frelimo monitor stationed at the Zunguza registration post to “remain attentive and block the registration of voters belonging to Renamo”. As we have ascertained, the instruction was “whenever a member of Renamo comes to register his name should be put in a notebook and at the end the list, and should be shared with the top Frelimo body in the district”.
The same information also notes that the Derre STAE is aware that 40 members of Renamo are at the future Zunguza EPC post waiting for the mobile brigade to register. The mobile brigade, coming from the Namuno EPC, will operate on Monday.
The MDM adds that the strategy is that, in the first weeks of registration, only the Frelimo members should be registered, leaving everyone else until later. It is suspected that many citizens, particularly members of the opposition, may not be able to register, because by this time there will be breakdowns of the Mobile-IDs.
Our correspondents report that many of the registration posts that were not working in the city and province of Maputo Monday due to torrential rains had reopened on Wednesday. In Maputo city, the information was confirmed by STAE Central. According to STAE spokesperson Regina Matsinhe, there are eight brigades that have not yet reopened in Maputo.
Many brigades are still operating in flooded areas, which to a certain extent may be contributing to the low voter turnout.
In a few districts registration continued despite the rain. In Matutuine, one of the districts where registration is still under way, the post at the Ponta de Ouro EPC, suffered a malfunction of the machines and more than 30 voters were obliged to go home.
Our correspondents in several Zambézia districts report lengthy queues of potential voters at the registration posts visited.
Yesterday (26 March) there was a high turnout in the districts of Lugela, Mulevala, Inhassunge, Derre and Maganja da Costa. At the registration posts visited, there were dozens of potential voters in the queues waiting their turn to register.
Zambézia is the province which, like Nampula, used to record the largest number of machine breakdowns and slowness in attending to voters. But today (26 March) the posts visited were attending to voters rapidly, and no cases were reported of voters giving up. The only case of slowness was reported at the Molumbo EPC.
The police on 26 March reported the fatal stabbing of a typist at voter registration post no. 259, located in the Napote EP1, in Muiane locality, in the Alto Ligonha administrative post, in Gilé district.
The police say the murder happened at 00:02 on 25 March, about 100 metres from the voter registration post. A policeperson stationed to protect the registration post heard the victim calling for help. The victim only said that he had been stabbed. He was immediately taken to the Muiane health centre, where he died of his injuries.
The police say the killing was not linked to questions of the registration. It is suspected that there were motives of passion. The brigade supervisor told the police that at the victim received a meal the evening before from a a friend had told her sister to bring the food.
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