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Need for second round confirmed
After an unexplained one-day delay, the Nampula District Elections Commission this afternoon announced the final results of the 24 January Nampula mayoral by-election. No candidate received more than 50% of the vote, so there will have to be a second round.
Officially the National Elections Commission must check the invalid votes and include any valid ones, but this will not change the final result. Then the Constitutional Council must validate the results. The second round is then within 30 days of the Constitutional Council ruling.
Official results with percentages of valid votes:
Frelimo – Amisse Cololo 31,980 (44.5%)
Renamo – Paulo Vahanle 28,930 (40.3%)
MDM – Carlos Saide 7,253 (10%)
AMUSI – Mario Albino 3.036 (4.2%)
PAHUMO – Filomena Mutoropa 560 (0.7%)
Registered: 296,590
Voted: 73,852 (24.9%)
Blank votes: 786 (1.06%)
Invalid votes: 1,307 (1,76%)
Valid Votes: 71,759
Confirmed by parallel count
The Electoral Observatory carried out its own parallel count, which was very close to the official results:
Frelimo – Amisse Cololo 44.6%
Renamo – Paulo Vahanle 40.2%
MDM – Carlos Saide 10.1%
Amusi – Mario Albino 4.3%
Pahumo – Filomena Matarupa 0.7%
Comment: Are they really “proud” of this election?
“We can consider ourselves proud. It’s an exemplary election,” Bernardino Luís, spokesperson of the Napula Provincial Elections Commission (Comissão Provincial de Eleições, CPE) told Radio Moçambique. http://bit.ly/2n9UdtZ “Everything went very well,” CPE president Daniel Ramos told O Pais (25 Jan).
If they are really proud of half the polling stations not opening on time and believe it is exemplary that during a month the chaos with the register books was never resolved, then it helps to explain why the same sloppiness has been repeated in every election since 2004.
Where are the public statements from the National Elections Commission (CNE) to say not only was it not exemplary, but it was not acceptable? Where are the statements from national STAE saying you cannot be proud of this mess? Top national officials were in Nampula and saw the sloppiness. Will they say, yet again, that Mozambique is a special case and is so poor and poorly educated that it cannot be expected to have a well run election?
The opposition parties have been quiet, and with good reason. They now have people in the CPE including a vice president, and people at all levels of STAE. One excuse given for the late opening of polling stations was that it rained. Did no Renamo or MDM nominated person ask: “It sometimes rains during the rainy season, what are you plans to ensure polling stations can open in the rain?”
When the first problems occurred in December with the flash drives with the register books, where were the Renamo and MDM insiders? Instead, both parties just made press statements. Do they only see these posts as ways to earn a salary, or do they actually want to participate and monitor the process from the inside.
Does the CNE agree that these elections were exemplary? Or does it want to make major improvements before local elections in October and national elections next year?
Further comment: The District Elections Commission could not even get the final results sheet right. Where they were supposed to write the number of “valid votes” they actually wrote the number of “total votes.” It is immediately obvious, because “valid votes” occur in two places on the form, and they are different. How did no one notice? More exemplary work?
By Joseph Hanlon
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