Mozambique Elections: ‘We do not want to say they were 100% transparent’ – Carta

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Mozambique Elections: ‘We do not want to say they were 100% transparent’ – Carta

3:13 CAT | 20 Jan 2025

Screen grab: CNN Portugal

In a surprising interview with Portuguese television CNN Portugal, Daniel Chapo addressed, for the first time, the controversial 2024 general elections, which led him taking office as President of the Republic on January 15.

According to Daniel Chapo, the Frelimo candidate declared the winner of the presidential elections with 65.17%, the irregularities and lack of transparency in the process did not affect the final result, which dictated that Frelimo remained the largest political force in the country, selecting not only the head of state, but also 171 of the 250 deputies that sit in parliament, along with all 10 provincial governors.

“We do not want to say that they were 100% transparent. There were irregularities, but the electoral bodies made it very clear that neither irregularities nor lack of transparency affect the result. That is why we are going to debate the electoral law: because in the future we want there to be more transparency and fewer irregularities,” Chapo argued.

Chapo’s conviction arises from the fact that the majority of the population lives in rural areas, where, according to the new head of state, only Frelimo is known and no one else. “70% of the Mozambican population lives in rural areas and it is there in rural areas that the people love Frelimo and know no one else but Frelimo. So, Frelimo is a structured party and it is the only one that is represented throughout the national territory,” argued the nation’s new supreme magistrate.

READ: Mozambique: Renamo declares itself the winner of the elections – by ‘the rural vote’

The general elections of October 9 2024 were the most contested in the history of Mozambique’s multi-party democracy, with opposition parties denouncing a scheme of fraud, from the illegal registration of voters to the falsification of minutes and notices. One of the most egregious blemishes was the different number of voters in the presidential, legislative and provincial elections, which the National Electoral Commission was unable to explain.

This was the first time that Daniel Chapo appeared publicly to address the electoral process, after almost three months of silence. More than 300 people died during the popular demonstrations called by presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane to contest the official results. Mondlane claims to have won the presidential election with more than 53% of the vote.

Source: Carta de Moçambique