Mozambique Elections: Renamo pledges to ‘restore electoral truth’ after EU, IMF meetings – photos

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Mozambique Elections: Renamo pledges to ‘restore electoral truth’ after EU, IMF meetings – photos

4:35 CAT | 03 Nov 2023

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: DW]

The leader of Mozambique’s main opposition Renamo party, Ossufo Momade, has said that it is not giving up on “restoring electoral truth” and advised international institutions to assess the level of democracy before granting financial support to the country’s authorities.

Momade made his comments on Friday following a series of meetings he had this week with the European Union ambassador accredited to Mozambique, Antonino Maggiore, and with the International Monetary Fund team for the country, led by Pablo Lopez Murphy, which was on a visit to Maputo for a regular assessment. According to the Renamo leader, “the current political moment” was analysed in these meetings, following the sixth local elections, held on 11 October, whose official results Renamo has forcefully contested.

“At the meeting, we reviewed the electoral process from registration to voting and the current post-electoral crisis resulting from the major electoral offences that have taken place since the beginning of the process,” said Momade. “On that occasion, we expressed our indignation at the fact that on 26 October the National Electoral Commission published fraudulent results, or simply reversed the results in most of the municipalities won by Renamo, giving the victory to Frelimo.”

Imfmomade.fb_ — *From left to right: Pablo Lopez Murphy, Ossufo Momade and Alexis Meyer-Cirkel [Photo: Ossufo Momade /Facebook]*

Ossufoantm.fb_ — *Antonino Maggiore and Ossufo Momade [Photo: Ossufo Momade /Facebook]*

The main opposition party has stage marches to contest the official results of the 11 October elections, bringing together thousands of people who denounce alleged “mega-fraud” in the ballot.

Mozambique’s sixth local elections were held in 65 municipalities, including 12 new municipalities where voters went to the polls for the first time to elect local officials.

The results presented by the National Elections Commission (CNE) indicate a victory for Frelimo in 64 of the country’s 65 municipalities, with the MDM, the third largest party in parliament, retaining control in the city of Beira.

Renamo, which before the elections had been in charge in eight of the previous 53 municipalities, was left without a single municipality, despite claiming victory in the country’s largest cities. It is contesting the results announced by the CNE, whose authenticity has also been questioned by civil society, non-governmental organisations and parties, with some success in getting rulings in the district courts to review results.

“Faced with this situation, Renamo demands that the electoral truth be restored, which is why it has been holding peaceful demonstrations in protest,” Momade said. “The police raid on Renamo offices in Maputo City and Nampula was another concern that we presented to the ambassador, as the tearing up of all democratic principles. The scenario of arrests of young activists from our party also deserved our repudiation.”

Regarding the meeting with the IMF team, Momade said that he had asked the organisation “to rigorously monitor the use of the amounts lent to countries, but especially in Mozambique, to prevent this same money from being diverted and used to buy military equipment to fight the opposition and for electoral fraud, as recently happened in the country” – a reference to the ‘hidden debts’ scandal that saw billions of dollars secured without the knowledge of parliament, and which has prompted multiple court cases.

“The time has come for the Bretton Woods Institutions to think seriously about serious human rights violations in some countries, especially in Africa,” said the Renamo leader. “Before aid, an assessment of unacceptable situations in a democracy must be present.”