Africa-Press – Mozambique. According to Sala da Paz, shootings, energy and internet restrictions, limitations on journalists, arrests and riots marked the voting and vote-counting processes in the local authorities in the cities of Maputo, Matola, Beira, Quelimane and Nampula. The organisations demand accountability for everyone involved in electoral crimes.
The voting process for choosing the mayors of the 65 municipal cities and towns has ended, but not everything went well. There were situations that, according to Sala da Paz, a joint electoral observation platform, could compromise the credibility of the electoral results.
“In the municipalities of Maputo, Matola, Beira, Quelimane and Nampula, several isolated facts were reported that in some way could affect the integrity and transparency of the process,” Sala da Paz representative Crispim Amaral told the press this Thursday.
“There were restrictions on access to electricity in some municipal districts in the cities of Maputo, Quelimane and Nampula. There were cases in which insufficient material, such as chalk and flashlights, made it impossible to begin counting votes. These facts took place in KaMaxaquene, in the City of Maputo and the Sports Pavilion, in Nampula.”
There were also cases of polling station presidents who refused to sign the minutes, as they did not accept the results, which resulted in shootings.
“In Quelimane, at the Coalane Primary School, several presidents and vice-presidents of the polling stations refused to sign the minutes and left the premises. This led to an environment of tension and violence involving voters and the president of one of the polling stations. The situation of refusal to sign minutes was also registered in several polling stations in the City of Maputo,” Amaral reported.
Shootings in the municipalities of Moatize, Gurué and Chiure resulted in the death of one citizen.
The Sala da Paz nevertheless characterizes the voting process as successful and similar to past elections, calling on electoral administration bodies to conduct subsequent steps with transparency.
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