Mozambique Elections: Forquilha calls for transparent recount of votes – AIM

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Mozambique Elections: Forquilha calls for transparent recount of votes – AIM

7:00 CAT | 25 Nov 2024

Image: O País

Albino Forquilha, the leader of the Optimistic Party for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos), has called for “a fair and transparent recount of votes” in order to avoid further demonstrations in protest against the allegedly fraudulent results of the general elections held 9 October.

Podemos is the political party that backs the independent presidential candidate, Venâncio Mondlane, who is responsible for calling mass demonstrations in order to demand the restoration of “electoral truth”, as well as to condemn the murders of his lawyer Elvino Dias, and of Paulo Guambe, election agent of Podemos.

According to Forquilha, the meeting that President Nyusi requested on Tuesday with the four presidential candidates makes no sense because what matters the most is the urgent recount of the votes.

“What does the President want to talk to the candidates about? What are we going to solve, if the dispute over electoral justice is a mathematical process? We must say who won and who didn’t? I don’t see any issue to talk about”, he said, cited by the Portuguese News Agency, Lusa.

READ: Mozambique Elections: No ‘subject’ to discuss at meeting, process is ‘mathematical’ – Podemos

Forquilha called on the Constitutional Council, the country’s highest body in matters of electoral law, to check the data with transparency in a process witnessed by national and international observers in order to avoid social unrest.

“We will continue to demonstrate so that justice may be restored. Anyone who complains is considered to be disobedient, so this is the time to demonstrate before the results are announced by the Constitutional Council”, he said.

He also condemned the recent amendments to the electoral legislation, claiming that the elimination of the powers of the district courts to order recounts is an “attempt to protect the loser” in the elections.

“The recounting of votes in the districts would be done in the presence of the parties’ representatives. How is the Constitutional Council going to be able to do the same job without the representatives of political parties? We sent a set of evidence and so far we have no information that any representatives have been called”, he said.

Forquilha also believes that the criminal proceedings filed against his party and Venancio Mondlane by the Attorney-General’s Office (PGR) is an attempt to intimidate opposition parties in favor of the ruling Frelimo party.

According to Forquilha, the lawsuit, which demands compensation of 32.3 billion meticais (about 505 million dollars at the current exchange rate) as a result of the damage caused to the State by demonstrations, “is indeed to intimidate.”

“These are proceedings to protect Frelimo, not to follow what is enshrined in the Constitution. They are processes that aim to intimidate the values of justice. We will respond, we will react, we will defend ourselves”, he said.

“We have not seen the PGR react to the deaths caused by the police that occur every day. So many shootings of defenseless citizens and it is not reacting, as if it were saying that complaining about injustice is a crime”, Forquilha said. “The PGR observed that before the vote there were people who were collecting voter cards, a non-transferable document, and it knew for what purpose, but it did not act”.

Source: AIM