Mozambique Elections: Thousands protest again to demand review of local election results – Watch

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Mozambique Elections: Thousands protest again to demand review of local election results – Watch

5:02 CAT | 03 Nov 2023

Photo: Luisa Nhantumbo/Lusa

Thousands of people came out onto the streets of Maputo again on Thursday to loudly ask “but who won” last month’s local elections, with the mayoral candidate for Renamo, the main opposition party, asking the judges of the Constitutional Council to decide “only on the basis of the law” the appeal that he has lodged with that institution.

“Just that they decide on the basis of the law, on the basis of conscience, on the basis of the truth, that’s all – only that,” said Venâncio Mondlane. “If that is done, then the victory is the people’s.”

Mondlane was responding to Lusa during a fresh protest in Maputo to repudiate the official results of the 11 October local elections announced by the National Electoral Commission (CNE), which attributed victory to governing Frelimo party, in 64 of the 65 councils for which elections were held.

Setting off from the Praça da Juventude square, in Bairro Magoanine, on the outskirts of Maputo, at around 11 a.m. local time (9 a.m. Lisbon time), thousands marched for more than four hours to the centre of the capital, without any incidents being reported.

Along an 18-kilometre route, they constantly repeated the rhetorical question “but who won?” – which has turned into a chant heard from people of all ages, in an allusion to what Renamo has denounced as a “mega-fraud” in the municipal election process.

“The Constitutional Council, at the moment, strictly speaking, has no alternative but to take the numbers and take the legitimate, true, original documents [polling station minutes and notices], which are the ones that Renamo managed to get from the polling stations,” explained Mondlane, who joined the march to the city centre, greeted by thousands of people lining the streets.

The Frelimo candidate for Maputo, Razaque Manhique, was announced by the CNE as the winner of the local elections in the capital. The municipality has always been led by Frelimo, but Mondlane claimed victory in these elections, with what he said was 53% of the votes, based on a parallel count that he said was made from the original notices and minutes of the polling stations – the same figures that he has submitted to the Constitutional Council as part of the appeal he filed to challenge, in the highest election court, the attribution of victory in the capital to Frelimo.

“It has absolutely everything to be successful,” said Mondlane of the appeal, referring to the alleged manipulation of polling station notices after the vote counting process. “I don’t see any other alternative.”

According to Mozambique’s electoral legislation, the results of the ballot must be validated and proclaimed by the Constitutional Council, the country’s highest electoral judicial body, to which Renamo candidates in Maputo and other municipalities have already appealed.

The main opposition party has staged marches to contest the results of the 11 October elections, gathering thousands of people to denounce the alleged “mega-fraud” in the ballot.

Renamom.lusa_ — *Photo: Luisa Nhantumbo/Lusa*

Maputonov22023.lusa_ — *Photo: Luisa Nhantumbo/Lusa*

Mozambique’s sixth local elections took place in 65 municipalities, including 12 new municipalities, where voters went to the polls for the first time to elect local officials.

The results published by the CNE indicate a victory for Frelimo in 64 of the country’s 65 municipalities, while the MDM, the third largest party in the national parliament, retained power in Beira.

Renamo, which prior to the elections had led in eight of the previous 53 municipalities, was left without a single one this time, despite its claiming victory in the country’s largest cities. The CNE has also seen its official results’ authenticity challenged by prominent members of civil society, non-governmental organisations and parties, with favourable rulings at district court level.

In contrast to the two previous marches, in which the police intervened, in particular by firing tear gas, there was no police intervention in Thursday’s demonstration.

“No riots, no damage, no loss – that’s what we want to prove,” Mondlane warned during the march. “Our fight is by democratic means, it’s by legal means, it’s based on the law – nothing else. We have so many young people here, but order remains.”

The Renamo candidate said the initiative was a “victory march” but also a “celebration” of the release, by court order, of 32 young people who had been arrested at the previous protest in the capital, last Friday. That prompted Mondlane to once again address the thousands who accompanied him on Thursday, to wild cheers.

“Did we win or not? Did we rescue Maputo or didn’t we?” he asked rhetorically. “Is Maputo ours or it is not?”

Watch.