Calm returns to Alto Molocué after election – AIM report

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Calm returns to Alto Molocué after election – AIM report

3:09 CAT | 16 Oct 2018

File photo (for illustration purposes only): Alto Molócuè @psicologowiston / Facebook

Calm has now returned to the municipality of Alto Molocue, in the central Mozambican province of Zambezia, after clashes on Friday between the police and supporters of the main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, reports Monday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”.

The riots arose from attempts to change the results of Wednesday’s municipal election in Alto Molocue.

The provisional count by the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE), announced on Thursday, showed a clear victory for Renamo. With 92 per cent of the votes processed, Renamo had 8,324 votes to 7,222 for the ruling Frelimo Party.

The STAE provisional count is normally very accurate, and with just two more polling stations to be added to the count, it was virtually impossible for Frelimo to win.

Yet on Friday night the Alto Molocue district elections commission (CDE) issued its “intermediate count” which claimed a narrow victory for Frelimo. The figures from the CDE count were:

Frelimo: 8,599 (47.8 per cent)

Renamo: 8,486 (47.1 per cent)

MDM: 915 (5.1 per cent).

These figures contradict, not only the STAE provisional count, but also the parallel count undertaken by observers from EISA (Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa). The EISA count of the polling station results sheets gave the following results:

Renamo: 8,933 (50.36 per cent)

Frelimo: 7,843 (44.2 per cent)

MDM: 959 (5.4 per cent)

A Renamo statement read out on Saturday by Ossufo Momade, the interim coordinator of the Renamo Political Commission, from his military base in Gorongosa district, said that the two results sheets not included in the STAE count were stolen by the presidents of those two polling stations.
The deputy chair of the CDE, appointed by Renamo, demanded that the two stolen results sheets should not be added to the total – but, according to Momade, he was then detained, in apparent violation of the limited immunity enjoyed by election officials.

Angry Renamo supporters threw up barricades in the streets of Alto Molocue on Friday night, and for several hours prevented the circulation of people and vehicles. The police used tear gas and rubber bullets to bring the situation under control.

Source: AIM