Mozambique: Constitutional Council receives Nampula by-election results

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Mozambique: Constitutional Council receives Nampula by-election results

12:08 CAT | 08 Feb 2018

Lusa (File photo)

Mozambique’s National Electoral Commission (CNE) has sent the results of the mayoral by-election in Nampula, northern Mozambique, to the Constitutional Council, a CNE spokesperson told Lusa on Monday.

A second round in the election is necessary.

“When the official results are released, we proceed to refer the process to the Constitutional Council and wait,” Paulo Cuinica said. This is a usual procedure provided for in law to validate electoral results, only after which is a new election date set.

The by-election in Nampula was held on January 24, but no candidate got 50 percent of the vote, necessitating a second round of voting.

The official results presented last week were: Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) candidate Amisse Cololo, 44.5 percent of the vote, followed by the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) candidate Paulo Vahanle, with 40.32 percent.

The holding of a second election will curtail an already short mandate, given that nationwide local elections are scheduled for October 15, in roughly eight months’ time.

Lusa tried unsuccessfully to contact the Constitutional Council for details on the progress of the process.

Mozambican electoral law states that it is up to the Council of Ministers to schedule, under a proposal from the CNE, a second round of voting, “to take place no more than thirty days after the validation and proclamation of the results of the first”, but this can happen only after the Constitutional Council’s consideration.

Nampula is located 1,300 kilometres north of the capital, Maputo, and is among the most populated areas of the country after the capital and its suburbs.

The by-election was called after the mayor, Mahamudo Amurane, was shot dead on his own doorstep on October 4, 2017, a crime still under investigation.

President Filipe Nyusi announced yesterday that parliament would today consider a bill agreed with the Renamo opposition party leader stipulating that local council presidents would be appointed by municipal assemblies instead of being directly elected.

This will render by-elections in the case of impediment of the mayor unnecessary in future, President Nyusi said, since the assembly will have the power to decide on his replacement.

Source: Lusa