Courts handled 73 election offences and 31 appeals – Mozambique Elections, AIM report

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Courts handled 73 election offences and 31 appeals – Mozambique Elections, AIM report

7:29 CAT | 19 Oct 2018

Photo: O País

Mozambican district courts handled 73 cases of electoral crimes between the start of the municipal election campaign, on 25 September, and now, and 31 appeals against the election results, the Deputy President of the Supreme Court, Joao Beirao, announced at a Maputo press conference on Friday.

Of the electoral crimes, 52 have come to trial, and 21 cases are pending. The most serious case was attempted ballot box stuffing on election day, 10 October, in the municipality of Marromeu, in the central province of Sofala.

One person was caught attempting to place ten extra votes in the ballot box. He was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to a month’s imprisonment plus a fine of twice the monthly minimum wage (8,510 meticais, equivalent to about 142 US dollars).

The summary information shown to reporters was very terse, and did not give this man’s name or political party.

Most of the offences concerned the destruction of opponents’ political propaganda. In some cases the defendants were found guilty, and in others they were acquitted. In general, those found guilty were fined.

Among the cases AIM noted, the heaviest fine (13 times the minimum wage – 55,315 meticais) was imposed on a voter caught campaigning on voting day. Mozambican law forbids any election campaigning on voting day and in the preceding 48 hours. Again the terse information in this case did not give his name, or the nature of the campaigning.

As for the appeals, Beirao said some of them are against the “intermediate count” – which are the results for entire municipalities – while some are only against the results in particular polling stations. Appeals have been lodged by all three main parties – the ruling Frelimo Party, the former rebel movement Renamo, and the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM).

But 13 of the appeals were immediately thrown out because no complaint was lodged first at the polling stations. A principle in the Mozambican electoral law is that parties must first protest at where the irregularity allegedly took place – at a polling station, or at a district elections commission, in the case of the intermediate count. Only then can they go to court. If they have not protested at the polling station or electoral body, the courts will not consider their appeal.

Rejection of appeals on these grounds happens at every election, and Beirao urged political parties to obtain a full understanding of the electoral legislation.

Such an appeal should not be necessary since it is Frelimo, Renamo and the MDM who wrote the election laws and approved them in the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic. The latest law governing municipal elections was passed unanimously in July.

One of the appeals thrown out on these grounds was the Renamo appeal against the results announced for Alto Molocue municipality in the central province of Zambezia. The court noted that Renamo had not appended copies of the results sheets and minutes that it was protesting against.

But judgement in the case of several election offences in Alto Molocue is pending, awaiting the presentation of witnesses.

Something that has not previously been reported was a Renamo claim that the number of votes cast at a polling station in Nhamatanda municipality, in Sofala province, was greater than the number of voters registered at that station. But again Renamo did not produce the polling station result sheet it was protesting against.

Renamo also protested against incidents during the voting in Milange (no details were given), but did not protest at the time. This time Renamo seems to think it is on stronger ground, since it announced its intention to appeal to the Constitutional Council.

No details at all were available from Tete and Nampula provinces, where Renamo has protested at fraud in at least three municipalities (Tete city, Moatize and Monapo). A Supreme Court official said that, when available, summaries of these cases will be sent to AIM.

Source: AIM