Mozambique Elections: Forquilha says Podemos “fights for justice” and asks institutions to “dignify the vote”

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Mozambique Elections: Forquilha says Podemos “fights for justice” and asks institutions to “dignify the vote”

8:24 CAT | 31 Oct 2024

Screen grab: Miramar

The president of Podemos this Thursday called on justice institutions to “dignify the vote” entrusted to his party, stating that he “fights for justice” and that no party could have got sufficient votes for 195 seats in parliament.

“Those who cast their votes know what they did and the results that come out should be close to reality, but in these elections, 195 seats for one party did not happen, and we have to be fair,” declared the president of the Optimist Party for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos), Albano Forquilha.

At a press conference in Maputo to review the meeting held with commander of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique Bernardino Rafael, Forquilha called on the Constitutional Council (CC) to “do its job” to end the “apparent” tension between the police and the protesters.

“All we are asking is that the institutions that administer justice carry out work that dignifies the vote that the Mozambican people cast in the political parties and this is also the role of the police, to defend that this sovereignty of the people to whom it was attributed is maintained,” Forquilha declared.

“As a party, following the rule, we made a general challenge to the Constitutional Council, but as we know, the CC is the one that approves rulings that are not appealable and perhaps this is the part that gives work for the Podemos and the police to do. What are we going to do, if we wait for the CC to make its decision even if it is unfair and there is no further appeal?” he asked, insisting that the Constitutional Council must “respect the people’s vote”.

Also at the press conference, Albano Forquilha pledged to stop the violence during the demonstrations and asked for the police’s cooperation in identifying “infiltrators”.

“I must say, I have suspicions that other political forces are perhaps infiltrating […], that exists, but if we are together we can very well identify who is doing this,” Forquilha concluded.

Presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane called for a week-long general strike in Mozambique starting today, demonstrations at the district headquarters of the National Electoral Commission (CNE) and marches to Maputo on November 7.

On the 24th, the National Electoral Commission (CNE) of Mozambique announced the victory of Daniel Chapo, supported by the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo, the party in power since 1975) in the election for President of the Republic on October 9, with 70.67% of the votes.

Venâncio Mondlane, supported by Podemos (extra-parliamentary), came in second place, with 20.32%, but stated that he did not recognize these results, which still have to be validated and proclaimed by the Constitutional Council.

Frelimo also strengthened its parliamentary majority, increasing from 184 to 195 deputies (out of 250), and elected all 10 provincial governors in the country.

In addition to Mondlane, the president of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo, the current largest opposition party), Ossufo Momade, one of the four presidential candidates, said that he did not recognize the results and called for the vote to be annulled, and presidential candidate Lutero Simango, supported by the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM), also rejected the results, considering that they were “forged in the secretariat”, and promised “political and legal action” to restore the “popular will”.

The demonstrations called by Mondlane on the 21st, 24th and 25th degenerated into clashes with the police, resulting in at least 10 deaths, dozens of injuries and 500 arrests, according to the Centre for Public Integrity, a Mozambican non-governmental organisation that monitors electoral processes.

Source: Lusa