Mozambique Elections: NGO accuses Public Prosecutor of being selective in initiating cases

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Mozambique Elections: NGO accuses Public Prosecutor of being selective in initiating cases

7:38 CAT | 26 Nov 2024

File photo: Carta de Moçambique

The Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), a non-governmental organisation, on Monday accused Mozambique’s public prosecutor’s office (MP) of “selective action” in bringing criminal charges for electoral offences and related acts in the 9 October elections.

“In the current electoral process, the MP has often acted selectively, in violation of the principle of legality to which it is bound by the Constitution of the Republic,” reads a CIP article sent to the media on Monday [full text, in Portuguese, HERE].

According to the Centre for Public Integrity, in the current electoral process, the electoral management bodies, made up of the National Electoral Commission (CNE) and the Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE), have acted in an ‘erratic’ way, which is ‘seriously compromising’ the truth and fairness of the process.

“While, in Mozambique, the Public Prosecutor’s Office must be guided by the principle/criterion of legality, the facts in concrete terms show otherwise. In the current electoral process, the MP has acted in a manner that has all the elements to bind itself to the principle of opportunity, which is extraneous to the exercise of criminal action,” reiterates CIP.

For the NGO, this action “embodies the lack of impartiality of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and exacerbates the poor perception that society has of the Mozambican justice administration bodies, because it considers them to be politically aligned with the ruling Frelimo party”.

“It is important that the Public Prosecutor’s Office also investigates and sanctions all the cases that occurred during the current electoral process, without any value judgement. The law does not give this body the possibility of passing judgement on the cases that come to its attention,” says the CIP.

On Friday, the Mozambican Public Prosecutor’s Office demanded compensation of €1.5 million (32 million meticais) for the damage caused by demonstrations in Maputo province in recent weeks, in a new lawsuit against presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane and Podemos, the party that supports him.

This is the second civil lawsuit of its kind in a few days, after one filed by the public prosecutor in the Maputo City Judicial Court (TJCM), in this case only for damages in the capital city, asking for compensation of 32,377,276.46 meticais ( €486,000).

The Mozambican head of state, Filipe Nyusi, has invited the presidential candidates for the general elections on 9 October to a meeting on 26 November to “discuss the situation of the country in the post-election period”.

The meeting is set to take place at Nyusi’s office in Maputo on Tuesday at 4pm and candidates Daniel Chapo, Venâncio Mondlane, Lutero Simango and Ossufo Momade, the latter three of whom do not recognise the results announced by the CNE, have been invited.

Venâncio Mondlane, Ossufo Momade and Lutero Simango have confirmed their willingness to take part in the meeting, but among other demands they want a clear agenda for the meeting, while Daniel Chapo has only said that he will attend, without any requirements.

The Mozambican president said that the violent post-election demonstrations were creating chaos and that “spreading fear on the streets” was weakening the country.

“I promise that, until the last day of my mandate, I will use all my energy to pacify Mozambique (…). But for me to succeed in this mission, we need all of us and each one of you (…) Mozambicans must be together to solve the problems,” Nyusi said in an address to the nation on Tuesday.

Source: Lusa