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Mozambique Elections: Mozambican observers call election ‘fraudulent’ – Watch
8:05 CAT | 16 Oct 2024
The More Integrity [Mais Integridade] electoral observation platform comprising Mozambican civil society organisations, today considered the general elections of October 9 “fraudulent”, highlighting the falsification of result sheets [‘editais’] and ballot box stuffing as among the alleged illicit acts.
“Once again, as a country, we held elections that are fraudulent, elections that do not reflect, at least from what we have observed, the will of the voters,” said Edson Cortez, director of the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that is part of the Mais Integridade platform.
Cortez was speaking this morning in Maputo during a press conference presenting the preliminary report on the voting and partial and intermediate counting of the general elections held a week ago in Mozambique.
The electoral observer said that the findings were the result of a parallel count of votes by Mais Integridade in the provinces of Nampula and Zambézia, the two largest electoral districts in the country, using as a sample 29,900 and 28,500 voters respectively out of just over 17.1 million registered voters across the country.
“Given this scenario, it is very difficult for the [Mais Integridade] consortium to come forward here and say that we carried out a count based on the ‘editais’, because most of the ‘editais’ have ‘massaged’ results, to say the least,” Cortez said.
“What we saw being counted and the results the next day were two completely different things”
Cortez said that the results released by the electoral bodies from some polling stations in Nampula province where the platform was present give victory to presidential candidate Daniel Chapo, supported by the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo, the ruling party), but the vote count at the polling stations themselves gave a “significant advantage” to presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, supported by the extra-parliamentary Optimistic Party for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos).
“We have ‘magic’ in Mozambique, it is a ‘blessing’, because what we saw being counted and the results the next day were two completely different things,” Cortez said.
The director of the CIP also denounced cases of ballot box stuffing, pointing out the existence of more than two special votes at some polling stations, which, he pointed out, is against the law.
A special vote is one cast by a voter who is not registered at the polling station where he or she votes, but who enjoys this right by law. This category includes national observers, police officers, journalists, among others.
“We have polling stations with more than 50 special votes, which implies that there were groups of privileged observers who can vote more than once at the polling stations they want, and this indicates that ballot boxes were stuffed,” Cortez alleged.
In total, Mais Integridade deployed 1,900 observers at 1,500 polling stations in the country’s 161 districts, and received reports from a total of 3,016 polling stations.
According to the provincial vote count data released publicly in recent days by the provincial electoral bodies – strongly contested by the opposition, with allegations of fraud – presidential candidate Daniel Chapo and Frelimo won in constituencies such as Nampula (the largest in the country), Cabo Delgado, Manica and Maputo city, among others.
Meanwhile, presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane was announced as the winner of the election in Beira, Sofala province, the third largest city in the country, while the Podemos, which supports him, appears in some constituencies as the second most voted-for in the legislative elections.
The CNE has a period of up to 15 days – after the polls close – to announce the results, which must then be validated by the Constitutional Council, which has no deadline for a final proclamation, and must also analyse the appeals received.
The general elections of 9 October included the seventh presidential elections – in which the current head of state, Filipe Nyusi, who had reached the limit of two terms, was no longer running – at the same time as the seventh legislative elections and the fourth elections for provincial assemblies and governors.
The candidates for the presidency were Daniel Chapo, Ossufo Momade, with the support of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo, the main opposition party), Lutero Simango, supported by the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM, the third largest party), and Venâncio Mondlane, supported by the extra-parliamentary Podemos.
Read the Mais Integridade report issued on October 15 2024 HERE.
Source: Lusa
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