Africa-Press – Mozambique. Tyrants stole the people’s vote”, “Down with vote thieves” and “Mozambicans, do justice” were some of the slogans Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) deputies pulled from beneath their clothing at this Wednesday’s plenary parliamentary session, in the presence of Prime Minister Adriano Maleiane.
Deputies from Renamo, Mozambique’s largest opposition party, returned to parliament today, after several weeks of absence in protest against the election results, but surprised the plenary meeting by appearing in black t-shirts with protest signs.
This was the first time that Renamo deputies had participated in the VIII ordinary parliamentary session, which has been running since October 19.
At the session, which started on Wednesday, the Mozambican government will for two days answer questions from the three parties represented in the Assembly of the Republic, namely the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo, party in power), Renamo, and the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM).
Renamo announced this week that it will sue the directors of the National Elections Commission (CNE) and the Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration, from the districts to the central level, as well as the judges of the Constitutional Council (CC) themselves, accusing them of having approved results of the October 11th local elections based on false electoral returns.
Renamo also promises to present an extraordinary appeal to annul the CC’s ruling that validated the results of the scrutiny, although it admits that the CC’s decisions cannot be appealed.
On Friday, the CC proclaimed Frelimo the winner of the local elections in 56 municipalities, against the previous 64 announced by the CNE, with Renamo winning four, and ordered the repeat of elections in another four.
According to the unanimously approved ruling, read over the course of one hour and 45 minutes by the president of the CC, Judge Counsellor Lúcia Ribeiro, Frelimo maintained its victory in the country’s two main cities, Maputo and Matola, where Renamo claims victory, despite the cutting tens of thousands of votes from the total allocated to the party in power.
The CC is the body of last instance of electoral justice with competence to validate elections in Mozambique.
The streets of some Mozambican cities, including Maputo, have been the scene of repeated demonstrations against what opposition parties consider to a “mega-fraud” in the local elections process and the results announced by the CNE, which were also heavily criticised by civil society and non-governmental organisations.
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