Mozambique Elections: More policing on voting day with reports of gunshots, detentions

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Mozambique Elections: More policing on voting day with reports of gunshots, detentions

8:53 CAT | 11 Dec 2023

Image: Lusa

The Mozambican police bolstered its forces at some polling stations, firing shots and making arrests following social unrest over alleged fraud attempts in the early hours of the new vote in Mozambique.

The district of Gurué, in Zambézia province, central Mozambique, was under tension, with police firing shots to disperse the population who are attacking two men suspected of possessing completed ballot papers, according to images broadcast on local television.

In contact with Lusa, the spokesman for the Republic of Mozambique Police (PRM) in Zambézia confirmed that there had been some unrest in Gurué but would not confirm that any shots had been fired.

“There was a small commotion, and the police quickly brought it under control. The police were called in to restore order, raise awareness and calm tempers,” said Miguel Caetano, adding that the process is now taking place in an orderly fashion in Gurué and also in Milange, another municipality that is repeating the ballot.

In the municipality of Marromeu, in Sofala, also in the centre of Mozambique, a presiding officer and a member of the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM, the third parliamentary force) were arrested for allegedly possessing completed ballot papers.

“After the first incidents in the morning, the police were forced to reinforce the contingent to guarantee order at the polling stations throughout the municipality,” said Izidro Nhamussua, PRM district commander in Marromeu, during a press conference.

Election observers also denounced a tense atmosphere in the early hours of the election, with “various irregularities, offences and violence recorded before and after voting opened”.

“This situation, in general, is worrying because these elections are a repetition of a process that we had on 11 October, which means that we should have learnt some basic elements of electoral coexistence by now,” said Duarte Amaral, spokesman for Sala da Porto, the Mozambican association observing the elections.

The Mais Integridade Electoral Consortium, which was observing the process in 72 polling stations, also denounced “attempts at fraud, including friction between presiding officers and opposition candidates”, as well as impediments to observation.

“The Mais Integridade observers were able to observe the start of voting in all the polling stations in Nacala-Porto and Gurúè, but in Marromeu, there are many cases where they were not allowed to observe, affecting at least 15% of the polling stations in that municipality, although they are gradually being resolved,” the consortium said in a note sent to the media.

The observers also said that there was little adherence to the process in some polling stations, noting the punctuality of the opening of polling stations.

The commander-general of the Mozambican police, Bernardino Rafael, called for calm in this Sunday’s local elections, warning against “opportunism” and guaranteeing that public order will be ensured.

A total of 53,270 voters are being called today to repeat the vote at 75 polling stations to choose new mayors in four Mozambican municipalities.

The repeat of the 11 October vote is taking place in 18 polling stations in Nacala-Porto (Nampula province), three in Milange, 13 in Gurúè (Zambézia) and in all 41 polling stations in Marromeu (Sofala), four municipalities in which the electoral process was not validated by the Mozambican Constitutional Council (CC) due to irregularities.

According to Mozambique’s National Electoral Commission (CNE), the repeat of the local elections is budgeted at 41 million meticais (€595,000) in a process that involves 525 polling station staff.

On Wednesday, the electoral commission announced that polling station staff who were involved in illegal activities in the 11 October elections will be removed from the new ballot.

The October elections were strongly contested by the opposition and civil society, who denounced alleged “mega-fraud”.

The Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo, the largest opposition party) filed an appeal asking for the repetition of the elections in those municipalities to be suspended, but to no avail.

The legislation in force states that when the election of one or more polling stations is declared null and void, “the corresponding electoral acts are repeated until the second Sunday after the decision of the Constitutional Council”.

On 24 November, the Mozambican CC proclaimed the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) the winner of the 11 October municipal elections in 56 municipalities, against the previous 64 announced by the CNE, with Renamo winning four, and ordered elections to be repeated in another four.

According to the unanimously approved ruling, read out by the president of the CC, Counsellor Judge Lúcia Ribeiro, Frelimo maintained its victory in the country’s two main cities, Maputo and Matola, where Renamo claimed to be victorious, despite cutting the total attributed to the ruling party by around 60,000 votes.

Source: Lusa