Mozambique Elections: Can 300 kilogrammes of ‘actas’ and ‘editais’ change the election results?

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Mozambique Elections: Can 300 kilogrammes of ‘actas’ and ‘editais’ change the election results?

3:27 CAT | 29 Oct 2024

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Podemos has filed an appeal with the Constitutional Council where, among other points, it requests a repeat of the general election count

Podemos has appealed to the Constitutional Council, demanding more seats in parliament than those officially announced. It also says that Venâncio Mondlane won the presidential election – but analysts doubt that the results will change.

The Optimistic Party for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos) has filed an appeal with the Constitutional Council (CC) against the results of the general elections, announced last week by the National Electoral Commission (CNE). The party is asking, among other points, for a repeat of the general count.

Around 300 kg of minutes [actas] and results sheets [editais] collected at the polling stations were handed over to the Constitutional Council by Podemos. The material, it says, proves the party’s victory in the legislative elections and the election of Venâncio Mondlane in the presidential elections, Podemos member Dinis Tivane told DW.

“Given what the CNE showed, they shortened our lead by around 107 seats. Our count is 138 seats, which gives Frelimo 91 seats, Renamo 12 and the MDM, 6 or 7. This is the count for the legislative elections. In terms of the presidential elections, in our count, we had 53.30% and Frelimo had around 30%,” Tivane explained.

The data announced by the CNE last week are quite different: Daniel Chapo, the candidate supported by the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), won with 70.67% of the votes, and the ruling party increased its number of seats in parliament from 184 to 195.

“Theft” at the polling stations and “fraud”

But Dinis Tivane explains that Podemos had access to around 60% of the minutes and notices (editais), and accuses Frelimo of fraud and theft at polling stations.

“At a certain point, after the results were counted, they [Frelimo] instructed their men at the polling stations not to hand over the minutes and the notices. This is what we call ‘stealing’. They didn’t hand over the minutes, they didn’t hand over the notices. Some were only handed over the next day or, 48 hours later, when they appeared distorted.”

“Unfortunately, our parallel count didn’t have access to all this data,” the Podemos member complains.

Tivane also says that in “30 years of multi-party democracy”, Frelimo “has never proven that it won elections”. This is why he is not confident that the Constitutional Council will give a positive opinion to the appeal.

“It is true, yes, that the opposition was not organized enough to prove that it had won the elections, and that was that. In these elections, we don’t believe that [something] completely different from what we are used to will happen. But it is up to us to fulfil our formal obligations,” he reasons.

Benefit of the doubt for the Constitutional Council?

For political analyst José Malaire, “it is unlikely that the Constitutional Council will not confirm the results announced by the CNE”.

“Based on its track record, whenever the Constitutional Council has been called upon, it has never done very well in terms of granting or giving reason to what was requested. Therefore, broadly speaking, it is unlikely that things will change. Even so, we have to give it the benefit of the doubt,” Malaire stressed in an interview with DW.

This Monday (28-10), the CNE delivered to the Constitutional Council the minutes and the notices of the national centralization and general tabulation of the results of the general elections.

On the occasion, CC president Lúcia Ribeiro explained that the electoral litigation processes for the district and provincial tabulations are still ongoing. Only after that can the analysis of the general tabulation minutes be carried out, something that could take at least 24 days.

“After that, the period for discussing the process itself also begins, as does the time the rapporteur has to write the ruling. The ruling that will be read out when the official results are announced publicly,” she added.

The process seems far from over, but, for Malaire, the long wait may still represent “a sign of hope” for Mozambicans.

“In my view, it is even a reasonable amount of time, if not the minimum, for what needs to be done or what needs to be determined, because, in fact, the climate of distrust, dissatisfaction and protest continues to hang over the country, and there are many things that need to be clarified,” he concludes.

Source: Deutsche Welle