Marromeu: Gross illegalities in rerun election

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Marromeu: Gross illegalities in rerun election

7:20 CAT | 23 Nov 2018

Photo: Mobilize Moz / Facebook

For the second time in six weeks, the municipal elections in the central Mozambican town of Marromeu were marred by grossly illegal police intervention and attempted ballot rigging, according to observers and journalists who watched the scenes.

The Constitutional Council, Mozambique’s highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law, threw out the results from eight Marromeu polling stations because of the serious irregularities that happened during the first vote, on 10 October.

The Council had, on 26 October, rejected an appeal from the main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, against the Marromeu results because Renamo had submitted the appeal a day late, and had not made any objection at the polling stations where the irregularities occurred, or to the Marromeu District Elections Commission. But this did not prevent the Council from drawing its own conclusions.

It found that “serious irregularities which called into question the freedom, justice and transparency of the elections” had occurred at eight polling stations – which are the same polling stations mentioned in the Renamo appeal.

Rioting had occurred in the polling centres during the count on the night of 10 October, during which four people were shot. From the ruling given by the Marromeu District Court and from police statements, the Council concluded that the rioting made it impossible for parties to present protests at the polling stations.

Renamo also claimed that, during the chaos, polling station chairpersons falsified results sheets, giving victory to the ruling Frelimo Party in places where, in reality, Renamo had the largest number of votes.

But the Marromeu police and the local branch of STAE (Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat) seem to have learnt no lessons, and the rerun of the vote on Thursday was also marked by major breaches of election laws.

As the voting started, at 07.00, it was noted that one polling station chairperson, Castigo Djedge, was also the chairperson of the outgoing Marromeu Municipal Assembly. The two positions are legally incompatible.

Polling station monitors from opposition parties demanded that Djedje be removed, and he was eventually replaced at around 11.00.

Repetição das Eleições autárquicas em Marromeu:

O ambiente é desconfiança na 25 de Junho. Houve três casos de eleitores interpelados na boca da urna que dizem vir de Inhaminga para votar. A FIR está no local, cercando o pátio escolar assim como a vizinhança

Fonte: Sala da Paz pic.twitter.com/bAMn9qBo1a

— Txeka (@TxekaMoz) November 22, 2018

Initially, some duly accredited observers were not allowed into the polling stations, in blatant violation of the law, and had to peer in through the windows. There was also a heavy presence of armed police, breaching the rule that says only one police officer may be inside each polling station area.

There were a couple of attempts by people to vote although they were not on the polling station registers, or to vote with voter cards belong to other citizen. One attempt to vote twice was reported.

But the major problems only began once the polls had closed. The law states that the count must begin immediately after the close of polls (at 18.00). But shortly after 20.00, the independent television station STV showed that the polling stations were almost deserted.

The polling station chairpersons had decided they should eat something before starting the count. Although they claim to have agreed this with the political party representatives, it is a serious violation of the law, leading to obvious suspicions that something crooked was being planned.

The chairpersons had made no attempt to secure any authorisation for abandoning their positions. When AIM phoned STAE-Central spokesperson, Claudio Langa, in Maputo, he said the first he knew about the abandonment of the stations was when he saw reports on social media and on the television channels. He said STAE immediately contacted its district delegation and ordered that the count begin at once.

Staemarromeu.tt_ — *STAE delwgation in Marromeu. Photo: @TxekaMoz*

At about 20.30 the polling station staff (MMVs) were back in position, and the count could begin. But, according to the report in the “Mozambique Political Process Bulletin”, published by the anti-corruption NGO, the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), when it became clear that Renamo had won by a substantial margin, the MMVs illegally expelled journalists and observers from the polling stations.

Faked results sheets were posted, which were on the station walls in the polling centre in the 25th June school for a short period before being removed. At the two polling stations in the Samora Machel school, no results at all were posted. At both schools the ballot papers and the other election materials were removed by the police.

But by then the observers had the real results for all eight polling stations, and these were printed in Friday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Mediafax”. In the eight polling stations, 2.924 votes were cast. Renamo won with 1,798 (67.5 per cent of valid votes) to 791 for Frelimo (29.7 per cent) and 74 for the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) (2.8 per cent).

There were also 5 blank ballots, and 207 invalid votes – which is over seven per cent of the total. 107 of the invalid votes came from one polling station, and such a grotesque anomaly is a clear sign of fraud.

There were clear attempts to intimidate journalists. Radio Mozambique claimed that members of Renamo threatened reporters, and STV filmed a physical attack against one of its most prominent journalists, Francisco Raiva, by a man believed to be a member of the defence and security forces. Raiva was protesting against the police ban on STV reporting freely from the polling stations.

When the radio asked the chairperson of the Marromeu District Elections Commission, Patricio da Silva, for the results, he said he was still waiting for the results sheets from the eight stations. He did not know when the commission would receive them, and so could give no date for publishing them.

Votes.marromeu.cip_ — *Photo: Sala da Paz*

One of the phoney results sheets briefly posted on the station wall claimed a turnout of over 100 per cent. In a polling station where 800 voters were registered, there were said to be 811 votes in the ballot box, 591 of which were for Frelimo. It is likely that this fake result will be quietly jettisoned.

The spokesperson for the National Elections Commission (CNE), Paulo Cuinica, told AIM on Friday that the CNE would only comment after it has received all the material from Marromeu.

Source: AIM