Mozambique Elections: Frelimo increases parliamentary majority with 195 seats, Podemos leads opposition with 31 – CNE

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Mozambique Elections: Frelimo increases parliamentary majority with 195 seats, Podemos leads opposition with 31 – CNE

7:51 CAT | 24 Oct 2024

Image: VOA

According to CNE figures, the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo, in power) won the 9 October elections with 11 more seats, and the extra-parliamentary Podemos dethroned Renamo as opposition leader.

According to the results of the general tabulation of the 9 October general elections – including the presidential, legislative and provincial assembly elections – announced this afternoon in Maputo by the president of the National Electoral Commission (CNE), Carlos Matsinhe, Frelimo won 195 seats in parliament.

According to the results presented today by the CNE, Frelimo strengthened its majority in parliament, which has 250 seats. It also saw its presidential candidate elected with 70.67% of the vote. However, the Constitutional Council still needs to validate and proclaim the results.

The Optimist Party for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos), a small non-parliamentary party that supported Venâncio Mondlane’s presidential bid, came second, electing 31 MPs.

According to the results announced by the CNE, the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), until now the largest opposition party, fell from 60 to 20 deputies.

The Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM) maintained its parliamentary representation but saw its total number of deputies fall from six to four.

In 2019, the Frelimo party won 184 parliamentary seats, 71.28%. Renamo then elected 60 MPs (22.28%), followed by MDM, with six MPs (4.19%).

According to official figures, the turnout in 2019 was 52% of the more than 13.1 million voters registered to vote.

43.48% of the more than 17.1 million registered voters voted in this election.

According to Carlos Matsinhe, the electoral tabulation was carried out by consensus in 87% of the 154 districts, while the minutes of the general tabulation result, at the CNE, were approved with nine votes in favour and seven against.

Before announcing the centralised results of the general tabulation, in an address which lasted more than three hours, the president of the CNE explained that ‘throughout polling day and the vote counting process, several contentious cases were filed with the judicial courts’, as well as ‘some channelled to the Constitutional Council’.

‘These processes are awaiting the competent decisions. However, the CNE is obliged by law to announce the result of the vote within 15 days of the vote (…), so we couldn’t wait for the decisions of these disputes,’ he acknowledged, admitting that these decisions “could have an impact on the results” announced today.

‘The announcement of the results does not close the whole process until the results have been validated and the winners proclaimed,’ he added.

After the intermediate tabulation, at the level of the 154 districts and then in the provinces, the CNE had 15 days to announce the official results. It is now up to the Constitutional Council to proclaim the results after also finalising the analysis of the appeals by the candidates and opposition parties, in this case, with no deadline set for that purpose.

The CNE’s announcement of the results today comes on the first of two days of general strikes and demonstrations across the country called by candidate Venâncio Mondlane against this year’s electoral process.

The 2024 electoral process has been criticised by international observers, who point to various irregularities, and marked by violence, with street protests that led to police intervention with tear gas and shots fired into the air, and the double murder of two top aides of presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, lawyer Elvino Dias and teacher Paulo Guambe, shot dead in an ambush in Maputo on the night of Friday, 18 October.

Source: Lusa