Renamo demands restoration of ‘election truth’

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Renamo demands restoration of ‘election truth’

8:42 CAT | 21 Nov 2018

Ossufo Momade. File photo: Lusa

Mozambique’s main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, on Tuesday demanded that “the truth be restored” about the results from the municipal elections of 10 October, in order to avoid “a post election conflict”.

According to the official results, as validated last week by the Constitutional Council, Mozambique’s highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law, of the 53 municipalities, the ruling Frelimo Party won in 43, Renamo in eight and the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) in one.

The 53rd municipality, the town of Marromeu in the central province of Sofala, is still undecided. The Constitutional Council agreed with Renamo that there had been gross irregularities in eight polling stations, and the election will be repeated in those stations on Thursday.

At a press conference addressed by telephone from his bush headquarters in Gorongosa district, Ossufo Momade, the interim coordinator of the Renamo Political Commission, demanded the creation of an independent commission of inquiry to investigate the fraud perpetrated during the elections.

This Commission, he said, should “restore the truth” in the extra municipalities Renamo claims that it won – namely the city of Matola, in Maputo province, and the towns of Moatize (Tete), Alto Molocue (Zambezia) and Monapo (Nampula), in addition to Marromeu.

He dismissed the validation and proclamation of the results by the Constitutional Council as “a real farce”, and said the Council should have held Frelimo criminally responsible for the electoral illegalities that took place in the municipalities Renamo claims.

He said that in Moatize, for example, the results at the polling stations were corrupted to deny victory to Renamo. There was no “intermediate count” (the municipality wide announcement of results) that was known to the public, much less to Renamo.

Independent assessments of what happened in Moatize support Momade’s claims – notably the count of all polling station results sheets done by the Moatize electronic paper “Malacha”, which showed a clear victory for Renamo.

Momade noted that most of Renamo’s appeals against the results were rejected by the Constitutional Council, because Renamo did not lodge any “prior objection” at the polling stations concerned. He claimed that making such complaints “was impossible while the police were arresting Renamo delegates”.

Mozambican electoral legislation, which was unanimously adopted by the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, including by the Renamo parliamentary group, makes no provision for setting up commissions of inquiry into election results.

The legislation also says that there is no appeal against decisions of the Constitutional Council.

Renamo should take some solace from the fact that these are the best election results it has ever achieved. At the start of 2018, Renamo did not control a single municipality (because it boycotted the 2013 local elections), but now it controls eight – or nine, if the Marromeu rerun goes its way. The Renamo-controlled municipalities include three of the county’s largest cities – Nampula, Nacala and Quelimane.

Source: AIM