Just In: Presidential candidate Mondlane unilaterally declares victory – Mozambique Elections

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Just In: Presidential candidate Mondlane unilaterally declares victory – Mozambique Elections

6:47 CAT | 10 Oct 2024

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Jose Coelho/Lusa]

Presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane on Thursday declared himself the winner of the Wednesday elections for President of the Republic of Mozambique based on the results of the minutes and public notices of the vote that are being processed by his candidacy.

“We are making a public declaration of victory in the face of the original, true minutes and public notices that have reached us,” said the candidate, in a self-styled declaration to the country, via his social networks, earlier this afternoon, but which has not been corroborated so far by any official information from the electoral bodies.

He added that his parallel counting centre, which uses the minutes and notices of polling stations received from all over the country, through the delegates at the stations, totalled almost 25% of the polling stations.

This parallel count also took place in 2023, when he ran for mayor of Maputo, claiming victory that was later not officially confirmed, leading to dozens of protest marches in the capital.

“So far we have a voting trend of 65% for Venâncio Mondlane and 60% for the Podemos party [without representation in parliament, which supports his candidacy],” said Mondlane.

“This means that, as far as has been counted at the moment, I, Venâncio Mondlane, am the favourite and the fair winner for the Presidency of the Republic of Mozambique and the Podemos party is the party with a parliamentary majority (…) This is a settled point,” he said.

“We are preparing to take over the government of the Republic of Mozambique in 2025. As I speak we have already set up a commission, which we call the CTG, which is the Government Transition Commission, which will, from January 2025, have access to the ministries (…) to find out about the dossiers (…) and the keys,” he said.

In accordance with electoral legislation, on Wednesday night the results were tabulated at polling station level, followed by a period of up to three days for the official tabulation at district level and up to five days after polling day for the provincial tabulation.

The National Electoral Commission has a deadline of up to 15 days to announce the results, which are then validated by the Constitutional Council, which has no deadline for a final proclamation and still has to analyse the appeals received.

Even so, Venâncio Mondlane says he has already won an “overwhelming, convincing and unequivocal” victory.

In the same speech, he denounced presiding officers “who ran away” from the count allegedly in favour of his candidacy, cases of illegal ballot stuffing in various parts of the country, among other irregularities “that are still going on” in this electoral process.

He also called on the country’s Defence and Security Forces “not to comply with illegal orders” from the ruling party (Mozambique Liberation Front), which “will resist”.

“And it will want to use brute force to violate the people (…) it’s time to put the sticks down,” he insisted.

Wednesday’s general elections included the seventh presidential elections – for which the current head of state, Filipe Nyusi, who has reached the constitutional limit of two terms, no longer ran – at the same time as the seventh legislative elections and the fourth elections for provincial assemblies and governors.

In addition to Venâncio Mondlane, Lutero Simango, supported by the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM, the third largest parliamentary force), Daniel Chapo, with the support of the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo, in power since 1975), and Ossufo Momade, with the support of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo, the largest opposition party), ran for the presidency.

The vote included legislative seats (250 members) and seats for provincial assemblies and their respective provincial governors, in this case with 794 mandates to be distributed. The CNE approved lists of 35 political parties running for parliament and 14 political parties and groups of voting citizens for the provincial assemblies.

Source: Lusa