Mozambique: Mais Integridade accuses ruling party of local election ‘result manipulation’ – Watch

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Mozambique: Mais Integridade accuses ruling party of local election ‘result manipulation’ – Watch

4:45 CAT | 16 Oct 2023

Screen grab: CIP

The “Mais Integridade” consortium, a coalition of Mozambican non-governmental organisations, on Monday, accused the ruling Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) of having manipulated the results of the 11th local elections, leading to “a high level of fraud”.

“Based on our observation and evidence gathered at polling stations, we note with concern that the sixth local elections were not transparent, fair or impartial,” said the director of the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), Edson Cortez, who read out the “Fraud Roadmap” communiqué on the consortium’s position.

The coalition’s observers noted a high level of fraud and misconduct on the part of electoral authorities, polling station staff and voter registration brigades.

“A particularly serious fraud arose during the counting process, in which the public results sheets ( editais ) were tampered with,” he added.

“We also noted the abusive use of force by the Defence and Security Forces to intimidate and expel observers and opposition party delegates from polling stations and to move ballot boxes to unknown locations, different from those where the count was supposed to take place,” said Cortez.

Observers from the More Integrity Consortium watched the vote count in hundreds of classrooms without light bulbs, the statement reads.

The coalition points out that “48 years after national independence, the counting of votes in the elections is done by the light of lamps”, emphasised Edson Cortez.

Agents of the Defence and Security Forces (FDS), who were supposed to act in a republican manner, acted in defence and support of the political formation in power, the Mais Integridade Consortium said.

The authorities used excessive force against voters in the various municipalities it observed, it said.

“Our observation found during the vote that in almost all the polling centres, the first two polling stations always had the highest turnout and that the vote tended to be in favour of the Frelimo party,” he said.

Observers from the Mais Integridade Consortium also detected ballot box stuffing and pre-marked ballot papers introduced into the ballot boxes by presiding officers, Frelimo polling station agents, police officers and observers of the electoral process linked to organisations close to the ruling party.

These situations were detected in the municipalities of Monapo, Mussoril and Nampula, in Nampula province, and Quelimane, in Zambezia province, the most populated regions in the country, the note continued.

“The process of accrediting observers was simply terrible and designed to make electoral observation difficult,” the statement added.

Mozambique’s sixth local elections took place in 65 municipalities on Wednesday, including 12 new municipalities which went to the polls for the first time. According to intermediate district and provincial results released by STAE in recent days for 50 municipalities, Frelimo won in 49 and MDM in Beira.