Mozambique Elections: ‘Certifying a lie is a fraud’ – Catholic bishops

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Mozambique Elections: ‘Certifying a lie is a fraud’ – Catholic bishops

6:28 CAT | 22 Oct 2024

Cathedral.maputo.macauhub.15.11.2016.470-1

File photo: Macauhub

The Roman Catholic bishops of Mozambique said on Tuesday that the general elections on 9 September were fraudulent and called on the electoral authorities not to certify the results, emphasising that “certifying a lie is a fraud”.

“The application of electoral law in the vote counting phase at national level by the competent authorities alone cannot guarantee reliable results if the data is not reliable. Certifying a lie is fraud”, reads the statement, signed by the Archbishop of Nampula, Inácio Saure, president of the Episcopal Conference of Mozambique (CEM).

The statement, released in the context of the general elections of October 9 and which opens with a quote from the Gospel According to Saint John, chapter 08, verse 32: “The truth will set you free”, also addresses the violence that followed the murder last Saturday of Elvino Dias, lawyer for Venâncio Mondlane, candidate for the presidential elections, and Paulo Guambe, leader of Podemos, the party that supports Mondlane, who, according to a police source told Lusa, were shot dead in an “ambush”.

The crime took place on Avenida Joaquim Chissano, in the center of the capital.

Following the double murder, Venâncio Mondlane, who is contesting the preliminary election results that do not give him victory, called for peaceful marches in Mozambique on Monday, which were dispersed with shots in the air and tear gas in Maputo and also in Pemba, resulting in at least 16 people injured in the capital.

Regarding the elections, the Mozambican bishops point out that after yet another vote that was “generally guided by civility”, in the aftermath of the election “once again, violence was resorted to and now marred by a cowardly ambush as a way of silencing, if not the truth, at least democracy”.

“We condemn the barbaric murder of two political figures, which clearly recalls, with similarities in method, other murders of political or civil society figures, also linked to opposition parties, that occurred following previous elections”, the CEM points out.

Stressing that the Catholic Church is non-partisan, does not support candidates and has no parties, the bishops state that the institution will not renounce its political and social commitment, “to a concrete path towards building a more democratic, inclusive, just and fraternal society, in which everyone should live in peace, with dignity and a future”.

“Therefore, as the voice of the Catholic Church, we Bishops cannot fail to denounce this serious situation that the country is going through and the violence it generates, plunging everyone into chaos”, the statement adds.

Regarding the general elections, the bishops highlight the high abstention rate, the result of “irregularities and fraud recorded in previous elections” which demonstrated to a large part of the population that their will, expressed at the ballot box, “is not respected, rendering the exercise of this important civic right useless”.

“Unfortunately, once again, gross fraud has occurred. There has been repeated ballot box stuffing, forged notices and many other ways of covering up the truth. The irregularities and frauds, which are largely carried out with impunity, have reinforced the lack of trust in the electoral bodies and in the leaders who abdicate their dignity and disregard the truth and the sense of service that should guide those to whom the people entrust their votes. In this way, they push the people not only to confirm their distrust, but also to question the legitimacy of those elected”, they stress.

The bishops stress that their message constitutes a “strong appeal” for an end to violence and “the courage to engage in dialogue and restore the truth of the facts”.

Therefore, they insist that the election results be determined “in a transparent manner”, publishing and comparing the original ballots held by the various participants, and they advocate the creation of “spaces for collaboration in governance and consider a possible Government of national unity”, in addition to involving “competent and serious institutions in the country in the management of the electoral processes, present and future”.

“Mozambique must not return to violence! Our country deserves truth, peace, tranquillity and tolerance! Let us pray for peace, let us be artisans of justice and witnesses to the truth,” the CEM statement concluded.

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