Mozambique elections: Opposition leader says “under pressure” to ensure that electoral truth prevails – Watch

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Mozambique elections: Opposition leader says “under pressure” to ensure that electoral truth prevails – Watch

1:51 CAT | 21 Oct 2019

Photo: Twitter / @coboje

Ossufo Momade, the leader of Renamo, Mozambique’s main opposition party, and its candidate for president, said on Monday that it is under pressure to do all it can to ensure that “the electoral truth” prevails, in the face of what he described as “scandalous fraud” in the 15 October general elections.

” The Renamo party has been receiving pressure from all sectors of Mozambican society and from other quarters to do everything to restore the electoral truth,” Momade said in opening an extraordinary session of the party’s National Political Commission.

To that end, he said, the commission should point to ways for the country to escape from the electoral dispute that has arisen from the elections.

“Contrary to this common and genuine will [for free, fair and transparent elections], we have, shamefully, had the most fraudulent elections ever seen in our country and in the whole world”, Momade said.

The country, he went on, must overcome the dispute arising from the electoral process, for the good of peace and national reconciliation.

Ossufo Momade has arrived at the Renamo Political Commission meeting taking place in Maputo today pic.twitter.com/ssfH52O0UU

— Tom Bowker (@TomBowk) October 21, 2019

The results so far announced and all projections point to a thumping win on all fronts for Mozambique’s governing Frelimo party, which has been in power since the country’s independence from Portugal.

The aim of the meeting of the Renamo leadership is to analyse the situation and decide what to do, after the party on Saturday called for a repetition of the elections, and stated that an agreement signed between it and the Frelimo government on the cessation of hostilities had been violated that served as the basis for the 8 August peace agreement.

The third-largest party in parliament, the MDM, also announced on Friday that it did not accept the results, alleging widespread fraud.

Some national and international electoral observation missions, including those of the European Union and the US, have expressed doubts and concerns about the quality of the electoral process and voter registration. But others took a different view: the African Union classed the elections as transparent, while the Community of Portuguese-Language Countries (CPLP) said it was in line with international standards.

The elections were for the country’s president, parliament and provincial assemblies – with the latter vote in turn to determine for the first time the choice of provincial governors.

Source: Lusa