Nampula by-election will go to second round – AIM report

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Nampula by-election will go to second round – AIM report

7:43 CAT | 25 Jan 2018

Aerial view of Nampula

In the mayoral by-election held on Wednesday in the northern Mozambican city of Nampula, no candidate won over 50 per cent of the vote, thus making a run-off between the two candidates with the most votes inevitable.

As the results came in from the 401 polling stations, it was clear that the candidate of the ruling Frelimo Party, Amisse Cololo, was in the lead, but that, taken together, the two opposition candidates, Paulo Vahanle of Renamo and Carlos Saide of the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), had more votes than Cololo.

According to a report in Thursday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Mediafax”, with 300 polling stations counted, the results were:

Amisse Cololo (Frelimo) – 26,506

Paulo Vahanle (Renamo) – 22,476

Carlos Saide (MDM) – 5,500

There were two minor candidates, Filomena Mutoropa of the Mozambican Humanitarian Party (PAHUMO), and Mario Albino of the Action Party of the United Movement for Complete Salvation (AMUSI). Between them they took around 3,100 votes.

A Mozambican election observer contacted by AIM on Thursday morning said that, with 90 per cent of the polling stations included in the parallel count done by the observers, Cololo had 44.5 per cent of the vote, Vahanle 40 per cent, and Saide 10 per cent. These percentages had remained fairly stable throughout the evening, and the missing ten per cent of polling stations are unlikely to change them much.

At the last municipal elections, in 2013, the MDM elected Mahamudo Amurane as mayor of Nampula, and won an absolute majority in the city’s municipal assembly. The by-election was precipitated by Amurane’s assassination on 4 October.

But in 2013 Renamo boycotted the elections, so that in all 53 municipalities there was a two horse race between Frelimo and the MDM. This exaggerated the MDM’s support, since those who wanted to vote against Frelimo had no choice but to vote for the MDM.

With Renamo’s return to municipal politics, the MDM vote has collapsed, exposing the cruel truth that Amurane won in 2013 because there was no Renamo candidate.

There must now be a second round between Cololo and Vahanle. If all the MDM voters switch to Vahanle, Frelimo will lose.

Turnout in the by-election was around 25 per cent – which is miserably low, but about the same as the turnout in Nampula in 2013.

Source: AIM