Mozambique Elections: Constitutional Council lays out timeline for announcing final results – Watch

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Mozambique Elections: Constitutional Council lays out timeline for announcing final results – Watch

2:12 CAT | 28 Oct 2024

Screen grab: Adriano Nuvunga/Facebook

The president of the Mozambican Constitutional Council (CC), Lúcia Ribeiro, said today that the body must analyse the pending disputes from the general elections of October 9, before moving on to the minutes [editais] of the general count, a step that will take 24 days.

“At the moment, the Functional Council is still finishing the electoral dispute processes of the district and provincial counts. And then it will certainly have (…) some appeals from the disputes of this general count. Only after these cases are resolved will we move on to the validation process,” explained Lúcia Ribeiro after receiving from the National Elections Commission (CNE) in Maputo the minutes and the notice of the national centralization and general count of the results of the general elections of October 9.

Ribeiro stated that, once the CC enters the phase of analysing the minutes and notices delivered by the CNE today, the judges will have “three days to give their approval”.

“Seven judges times three days equals 21. Plus the Attorney General, that ends up being 24 days. After that, the period for discussing the process itself and the period that the rapporteur has to write the ruling also begins, after which the ruling is written and discussed. The ruling is then read out in the public proclamation [of the official results],” she said.

‘With eyes wide open’

“As the poets say, we will look at the documents that were brought to us with eyes wide open,” Ribeiro said regarding the delivery of the general count by the CNE.

In the same speech, Ribeiro alluded to the Constitution of the Republic which, regarding the organization and functioning of the Assembly of the Republic, states that the first session of the new parliament must take place “up to 20 days after the validation and proclamation of the election results”.

“If we take into account that the current Assembly of the Republic took office on January 12 [2020], then their term of office will end on January 12. We could ask, what if the Constitutional Council validates the results too early and these other deputies take office 20 days later? Could this happen before the end of the other deputies’ terms of office,” the president of the CC pointed out.

“Because we would be counting from January 12 backwards and this would be around December 25 or 26,” she detailed.

‘500 deputies?- a ‘hypothesis for academic and doctrinal discussion’

The other possibility is that the CC validates “once it has finished” the process. “So would we have some new deputies and some old deputies for a certain period?” she asks. “In other words, at some point, perhaps in an academic hypothesis, we would have 500 deputies, because some finish on January 12 and others would start earlier, but this is a hypothesis for academic and doctrinal discussion.”

Mozambique’s National Electoral Council (CNE) on Thursday announced the victory of Daniel Chapo, supported by Frelimo (the party in power since 1975) in the election for President of the Republic on October 9, with 70.67% of the votes. Venâncio Mondlane, supported by the Optimist Party for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos, an extra-parliamentary party), came in second place, with 20.32%, but claims not to recognize these results, which still have to be validated and proclaimed by the Constitutional Council.

According to the CNE’s announcement, the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) also strengthened its parliamentary majority, increasing from 184 to 195 deputies (out of 250), and elected all 10 provincial governors of the country.

Several heads of state, including those of Angola, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Venezuela, as well as the Chinese government, have already congratulated “President-elect” Daniel Chapo.

In addition to Mondlane, Ossufo Momade, supported by the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo, the current largest opposition party), and Lutero Simango, supported by the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM), also announced that they do not recognize the results.

The announcement of the results by the CNE triggered violent protests and clashes with the police in Mozambique, especially in Maputo, by pro-Venâncio Mondlane demonstrators.

Source: Lusa