Mozambique Elections: Constitutional Council lays out timeline for announcing final results - Watch
CIP Mozambique Elections: Catholic bishops suggest possibility of a government of national unity
9:07 CAT | 24 Oct 2024
FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Wkimedia Commons/ ilf_ - Unabhängigkeits-Platz mit Samora-Machel-Statue]
In a very hard-hitting pastoral letter, the Catholic bishops suggest the need to create spaces for collaboration in governance and to consider a possible government of national unity.
They recommend the involvement of competent and serious Mozambican bodies in the management of present and future elections.
The bishops also ask for courage to hold a dialogue so as to ascertain transparently the results of the elections by publishing and confronting the original polling station results sheets in the possession of the various stakeholders.
“Once again there were gross frauds”, state Catholic bishops
“Unfortunately, once again there were gross frauds. Again there was ballot box stuffing, faked results sheets and many other ways of hiding the truth. The irregularities and frauds, by and large committed with impunity, increase the lack of trust in the election bodies, and in leaders who abdicate from their dignity, and despise the truth and sense of service which should guide those whom the people trust with their votes”, the Catholic Bishops stressed.
According to the bishops, the frauds “push the people not only to show their distrust but also to question the legitimacy of those elected”.
The bishops add that the application of the electoral law in the vote counting phase at national level by the competent authorities in itself cannot guarantee reliable results if the data is not reliable. So “certifying a lie is fraud”.
“We cannot let parties and powerful groups to continue promoting damaging influences among young people”
In the same letter, the Catholic bishops restate that once again the greatest national wealth is our young people. Therefore, “We cannot let political parties and powerful groups continue to promote their damaging influence on youth, inculcating policies of contempt, hatred and revenge, or demonstrating an absence of values of respect for truth and honour”.
The bishops call for respect for the right to peaceful demonstration, but also warn young people “not to let yourselves be turned into instruments and dragged into acts of vandalism and destabilisation”.
They recall that, in the pastoral note of 16 April 2021, they had drawn attention to the ease with which young people let themselves be enticed and take part in violence and illegal behaviour, since their life “rests on the absence of hope for a favourable future… the lack of opportunities for building a decent life”. Furthermore, they add, lack of belief in the authorities who should be the guarantor of truth opens the gates to despair. “Young people should be listened to, and we should give them an answer”.
Bishops denounce “cowardly ambush to gag the truth”
According to the bishops’ letter, the aftermath of the elections is once again characterised by the resort to violence and is now “stained with a cowardly ambush as a way of gagging, if not the truth, at least democracy”.
Hence they condemn “the barbaric murders of two political figures and recall other murders, similar in method of political or civil society figures, also linked to opposition parties, which occurred following previous elections”.
The bishops reiterate “a strong appeal for us to halt the violence, the political crimes and the lack of respect for democracy. Let us have the courage to embark on dialogue and restore the truth of the facts”.
Centralisation of national results on Wednesday at 15.00
The National Elections Commission has invited election observers and civil society to accompany the centralization ton Wednesday (23 October) of the results of the general elections of 9 October.
The event will take place at the CNE headquarters in Maputo City. Everything indicates that the results will be announced on Thursday (24 October).
Source: Centro de Integridade Pública - CIP Eleições
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