Mozambique Elections: MDM says irregularities benefited Frelimo – Watch

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Mozambique Elections: MDM says irregularities benefited Frelimo – Watch

8:49 CAT | 28 Nov 2023

The president of the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM), the third-largest party in parliament, said on Sunday that “all the irregularities” recorded during the sixth local elections benefited the ruling party, Frelimo, to the detriment of the MDM.

“The irregularities observed in the voter registration process and throughout the electoral campaign, as well as on voting day, influenced the results in favour of the dominant party. Frelimo benefited from all the irregularities, as there were manipulations,” Lutero Simango told a press conference in Maputo.

The Mozambican Constitutional Council (CC) on Friday proclaimed the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) the winner of the October 11th municipal elections in 56 municipalities, against the previous 64 announced by the National Elections Commission (CNE), with the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo, the largest opposition party) winning four and the MDM one municipality, with elections to be repeated, some partially, in four others.

According to Lutero Simango, the results announced by the CC disadvantaged his party in some municipalities in the centre and north of the country.

“The MDM was harmed, especially in the provinces of Niassa and Tete. In these two provinces we were completely harmed, because our candidacy delegates were prevented from being [present] at the polling stations (mesas) until the end of the process,” Simango said.

The third Mozambican political force complains of having been unfairly treated in the city of Beira, the only municipality where it won, and in Dondo, Gorongosa and Homoine, in addition to the city of Matola, claiming that there was a consequent reduction in the number of members of that party in the provincial assemblies of these municipalities.

According to the unanimously approved ruling, read by the president of the Constitutional Council, judge counsellor Lúcia Ribeiro, Frelimo maintained its victory in the country’s two main cities, Maputo and Matola, where Renamo in fact claims to be the winner, despite having around 60,000 votes cut from its tally.

The CC is the body of last instance of electoral justice with competence to validate elections in Mozambique.

On Saturday, the president of Renamo, the main opposition party, also said that the party does not recognize the results of the local elections proclaimed by the CC, calling on the population to demonstrate.

“In view of this shame for democracy and the denial of the will of Mozambicans, the Renamo party reiterates that it does not recognize the published results,” said Ossufo Momade, at a press conference.

The streets of some Mozambican cities, including Maputo, have been taken over by consecutive opposition demonstrations against what they consider to have been a “mega-fraud” in the local elections process and the results announced by the CNE, which were also heavily criticised by civil society and non-governmental organisations.