Mozambique Elections: Renamo files criminal complaints against CC judges

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique Elections: Renamo files criminal complaints against CC judges

8:05 CAT | 30 Nov 2023

Screen grab>VM& MIDIA

Renamo will file an injunction to suspend the repeat of the local elections, scheduled for December 10 in four Mozambican municipalities, until the Constitutional Council (CC) responds to its request for clarification, the party announced on Wednesday.

“We are going to submit an injunction because we cannot move forward with the elections on the 10th while the Constitutional Council itself has not yet assessed the request for clarification of the ruling submitted by Renamo. Therefore, after responding to this, there will be conditions to move forward with the next elections,” Venâncio Mondlane, Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) candidate for the city of Maputo, told the media on the steps of the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), minutes after submitting new criminal complaints against the counsellor judges of the CC.

On Tuesday, the Council of Ministers of Mozambique approved a decree determining December 10 as the date for repeating local elections in parts of the four municipalities for which the process was not validated by the CC.

In addition to responding to the request for clarification, Mondlane said that there would only be conditions for holding the elections after the CC also responds to the extraordinary appeal to annul the ruling that validated the October 11 vote, a document that will be submitted by Friday.

“If the Constitutional Council were swift and responded to us today or tomorrow, clearly we might perhaps be in time to hold these elections on the 10th,” Mondlane said, adding that everything now depended on the speed of the body in responding to the party’s requests.

Renamo yesterday submitted criminal complaints to the Attorney General’s Office against the seven CC counsellor judges, two of whom were appointed by the party, accusing them of “usurpation of functions” by annulling sentences from the district judicial courts, a decision that, according to Mondlane, can only be taken by the Assembly of the Republic.

“There must be accountability for these seven persons who make up the plenary session of the Constitutional Council,” Mondlane said, stressing that the body “usurped the functions of the Assembly of the Republic to invalidate, without basis, decisions that the courts took”, going beyond its powers and field of action.

The largest Mozambican opposition party also announced that it would this Thursday file criminal complaints against members of the Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE) and 17 other members of the National Elections Commission (CNE), including the organ’s president, Carlos Matsinhe.

On Monday, Renamo filed criminal complaints against the police commander, Bernardino Rafael, and the president of Television of Mozambique (TVM), Élio Jonasse, accusing them respectively of using disproportionate force and manipulating public opinion during the elections.

After several weeks’ absence, Renamo deputies returned to parliament yesterday, but surprised the plenary meeting by appearing in black and with inscriptions protesting against what they classify as “mega- fraud” in the October 11 elections.

The CC on Friday proclaimed the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo), the party in power, winner of the local elections in 56 municipalities, against the previous 64, with Renamo winning four, and ordered elections to be repeated in another four.

According to the CC’s unanimously approved ruling, Frelimo maintained its victory in the country’s two main cities, Maputo and Matola, in which Renamo claimed to be the winner, despite cutting the total votes allocated to the party in power by tens of thousands.

The CC is the body of last instance of electoral justice with competence to validate elections in Mozambique.

The streets of some Mozambican cities, including Maputo, have seen repeated opposition demonstrations against what they consider to have been a “mega-fraud” in the local government process, which has also been heavily criticised by civil society and non-governmental organisations.

Source: Lusa