Mozambique Elections: Observers were prevented from monitoring election results – AIM

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Mozambique Elections: Observers were prevented from monitoring election results – AIM

4:54 CAT | 17 Oct 2024

FILE - For illustration purposes only. A polling station in Maputo city on October 9, 2024. [File photo: AIM]

The anti-corruption NGO, the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), claims that journalists and observers of last Wednesday’s voting were prevented from monitoring the tabulation of results at district level.

According to CIP, the ban violates the law, which states that “observers and the media shall attend the tabulation of results, and shall be notified in writing or by notice, in accordance with the law’.

“In several districts of the southern Inhambane province, our observers were prevented from watching the tabulation of results. This was the case in Inhambane city, Massinga and other districts”, reads the latest CIP bulletin on the elections.

Members of the polling station staff, the bulletin says, interrupted the tabulation of results for more than an hour in Inharrime district, claiming that they were waiting for “higher orders” to continue.

“This obstruction also occurred throughout Gaza province, in Mandlakaze, Chókwè and other districts. In Mandlakaze, for example, they claimed that the activity taking place was centralization of results and not tabulation”, the Bulletin said.

According to CIP, in Mecuburi district, in the northern province of Nampula, the process took place in total secrecy, “so much so that none of the observers knew where the tabulation was taking place. When they managed to locate the place, the observers were prevented from entering the room.”

Source: AIM