Mozambique Elections: Wait for official results, urges Chapo – AIM

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Mozambique Elections: Wait for official results, urges Chapo – AIM

12:35 CAT | 12 Oct 2024

Daniel Chapo was speaking to reporters on Friday after watching the football match between Mozambique and Eswatini in the Zimpeto National Stadium in Maputo (which ended in a draw). [Screen grab: STV Soico]

The presidential candidate of Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo Party, Daniel Chapo, has urged citizens to wait for the official results from Wednesday’s presidential, parliamentary and provincial elections.

He was speaking to reporters on Friday after watching the football match between Mozambique and Eswatini in the Zimpeto National Stadium in Maputo (which ended in a draw).

The independent presidential candidate, Venancio Mondlane, has already proclaimed himself the winner, but has not published the polling station results sheets (“editais”) on which this claim is based.

The preliminary results which AIM has seen indicate that in reality Chapo won, with Mondlane coming second. But Chapo has been careful not to make any claims of victory.

“Just like this football match which has just finished, it is the referees who guarantee the result”, he said. “So we are waiting for the results to be announced by the election management bodies”.

It was only those bodies that have the power to declare the results, he said. “I urge all Mozambicans to remain calm and serene”, Chapo added, “and wait for the electoral bodies, within the law, to announce the results”.

Currently, the “intermediate count” is under way. This is the collation of the polling station results, district by district, which should be concluded this weekend. The legal deadline for the District Elections Commissions to announce their results is Saturday.

The district results are then collated into provincial results. The results of this “provincial centralization” should be announced by the chairperson of each of the provincial elections commissions within five days of the close of polls – that is, by Monday.

Those results are then sent to the National Elections Commission (CNE) which should announce national results by 25 October.

But these results are not definitive. They have to be validated and proclaimed by the Constitutional Council and the law fixes no deadline for the Council to take its decision.