Mozambique Elections: Frelimo marches for Sofala victories; Beira court acquits two MDM delegates – AIM

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Mozambique Elections: Frelimo marches for Sofala victories; Beira court acquits two MDM delegates – AIM

7:00 CAT | 19 Oct 2023

Photo: Frelimo Sofala/Facebook

On Wednesday, members and supporters of the ruling Frelimo Party were marching to celebrate the victories they have claimed in five of the six municipalities in Sofala province.

Ironically, Frelimo chose to march in Beira city, the only municipality in Sofala where it lost. According to the “intermediate count”, announced on Saturday by the Beira district elections commission, the MDM won 112,963 votes (58 per cent of valid votes).

Frelimo came second, with 73,302 votes (37.74 per cent). The main opposition party, Renamo, was humiliated with only 7,045 votes (3.63 per cent).

Frelimo has not challenged this result. It means that Frelimo has lost every election held in Beira since 1998.

Nonetheless, Frelimo supporters marched through the streets of Beira, to celebrate the victories they have claimed in the municipalities of Dondo, Nhamatanda, Gorongosa, Marromeu and Caia.

The Sofala provincial governor, Lourenco Bulha, led the march, and thanked the Beira voters. “We lost the election”, he admitted, “but we are happy because we won more votes than in the previous municipal election”.

He believed that the Frelimo representation in the Beira Municipal Assembly will rise from the current 14 members to 18 or 19.

Beira court acquits two MDM delegates

Meanwhile, the Beira City Court on Tuesday acquitted two political delegates of the opposition Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) who had been accused of kidnapping.

READ: Mozambique Elections: MDM members acquitted of kidnapping charges in Beira

The Beira city MDM delegate, Picardo Sola, and the party’s Sofala provincial delegate, Marcelino Manhoso, were accused of kidnapping a man named Joao Nhamue, who was caught collecting voter cards from citizens in the neighbourhood of Munhava, on the morning of 11 October, the day of the municipal elections.

That day, Nhamue was presented publicly at a rally addressed by the MDM President Lutero Simango, and then handed over to the police. He has subsequently disappeared.

According to a report on the independent television station STV, the judge in the Beira court, Tome Valente, said the two must be acquitted, because there was not sufficient evidence that they had committed the alleged crime.

Valente thus dismissed the charge pressed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, and the two delegates were released.

Manhoso said the charges against the two were politically motivated, but the judge “refused to be dragged along by the politicians”. Instead, Valente “analysed the charges professionally”.

This is not necessarily the end of the matter. Valente said that, if the prosecution wanted, it could continue the case by finding the missing Nhamue, and bringing him to court.

But Nhamue may wish to lie low, since collecting voter cards is itself a criminal offence. The voter card is personal, and cannot be passed on to anybody else.

Source: AIM