Mozambique Elections: Ruling Frelimo party wins in all Cabo Delgado municipalities

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Mozambique Elections: Ruling Frelimo party wins in all Cabo Delgado municipalities

7:14 CAT | 14 Oct 2023

File photo: DW

Mozambique’s governing Frelimo Party has won all seven local councils in Cabo Delgado province in Wednesday’s local elections, taking one from Renamo, according to figures announced on Friday by the Provincial Electoral Commission.

“We want to emphasise here that these tabulation results at provincial level mirror what is happening at district level,” said Albino Pariela, president of that commission, at the presentation in Pemba of the tabulation results, approved today, he stressed, by “consensus” in that body.

Frelimo was already leading six of the seven local councils that went to the polls in these sixth local elections, but it also won Chiúre, with 12,503 votes (50%), which was in the hands of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo, the largest opposition party in the country), which secured 11,676 (45%), according to the data, while the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) got no more than 479 votes (1%).

Also according to the data presented today, the Frelimo list won in the city of Pemba, the provincial capital, with 38,849 votes (68%), followed by the Renamo list with 16,327 votes (27%) and the MDM list with 4,619 votes (7%).

In Mueda, Frelimo won with 16,677 votes (87%), followed by Renamo with 1,600 votes (8%) and the MDM with 1,600 (8%), while in Montepuez Frelimo won with 21,834 votes (71%), Renamo with 7,620 votes (25%) and the MDM with 1,023 votes (3.4%).

In Balama, Frelimo won with 6,430 votes (76%), followed by Renamo with 1,749 votes (20%) and the MDM with 241 votes (2%). In Ibo, Frelimo won with 2,738 votes (81%), followed by Renamo with 525 votes (15%) and the MDM with 115 votes (3%).

In the town of Mocímboa da Praia, Frelimo won with 8,768 votes ( 60%), followed by Renamo with 5,122 votes ( 35%).

The Mozambican Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE) confirmed on Thursday that it had not yet received any results from the local elections in the 65 districts and that the tabulation, 24 hours after voting closed, is still at an intermediate stage.

At a press conference held in Maputo, STAE spokeswoman Regina Matsinhe did not give a date for the release of the results of the local elections, which closed at 18:00 (17:00 in Lisbon) on Wednesday throughout the country, beyond the deadlines laid down in the legislation.

Thus, she explained again, during the early hours of Thursday morning the partial tabulation was carried out at each polling station, which can have up to 800 voters, and the respective notice must be published at the door, followed – and this is underway – by the intermediate municipal tabulation, at district level, within three days of the vote, and then, within five days, the centralisation of the results by province, which in some places is also starting to happen, such as Cabo Delgado.

The National Electoral Commission then has up to 15 days after the vote to publish the final results.

Just over 4.8 million voters were eligible to vote in these local elections in the country’s 65 districts.

Mozambican voters were asked to choose 65 new municipal council mayors and elected municipal council members, including in 12 new councils approved by the Cabinet in October 2022, which join 53 existing ones, for a total of 1,747 members to be elected.

Mozambique is embarking on a new electoral cycle, which, in addition to the local elections, includes general elections on 9 October 2024, namely with the choice of the country’s new president, a position for which the current head of state, Filipe Nyusi, can no longer constitutionally run.

More than 11,500 candidates from 11 political parties, three coalitions of parties and eight citizens’ groups contested the local elections, with the CNE determining 1,486 Polling Station locations and 6,875 voting stations.

In the 2018 local elections, the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo, in power) won in 44 of the 53 municipalities and the opposition in only nine, the Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo) in eight and the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) in one.

Source: Lusa