Mozambique: Final election results around 23 December – Constitutional Council | Lusa

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Mozambique: Final election results around 23 December – Constitutional Council | Lusa

9:29 CAT | 26 Nov 2024

File photo: Lusa

The Mozambican Constitutional Council (CC) said on Monday that it was “working hard” to achieve the “electoral truth” about the October general elections, and that it expected the final results to be announced around 23 December.

In a rare communiqué, signed by the president of that body, Lúcia Ribeiro, and which also emphasises that it is an “exception” to the CC’s practice, justified by the “current moment of social alarm” and “great expectations in society”, it is recalled that the legislation does not set “any deadline for the conclusion of the process of validating and proclaiming the election results”.

However, it also emphasises that the Constitution of the Republic provides that the first session of the Parliament “shall take place no later than 20 days after the proclamation of the election results”.

“Taking into account the fact that the current legislature took office on 12 January 2020 and that it (…) lasts for five years, we are faced with a time constraint of a constitutional nature that obliges this body to strictly observe it,” reads the statement.

Taking into account the 20-day deadline and the end of the current legislature on 12 January, the CC communiqué in practice foresees a date of around 23 December – which is not specified in the communiqué – as the deadline for proclaiming the results of the general elections – legislative, presidential and provincial – on 9 October, almost two months after the announcement made by the National Electoral Commission (CNE) on 24 October.

The position issued today by the CC is described as a way of “exhorting all citizens to greater restraint” and, on the other hand, “ensuring that this body has been working hard to achieve the much sought-after electoral truth”.

In the same statement, it said that, “regrettably”, the judges of the CC “have been the target of threats, including death threats, sent by private messages or published on social networks”, but emphasised that this “intimidation is not a weapon of democracy, but a constituent element of a legal crime”.

“Faced with this complex and intolerant scenario, there have been individual and institutional pronouncements, both national and foreign, calling for “transparency and integrity in the electoral process”, addressed to the Constitutional Council, as the body with the last word in this process,” it also recognises.

Emphasising the role of the Constitutional Council within the legal framework, it guarantees that “it could never shirk its constitutional obligation to seek electoral truth and justice”, and that since its “pronouncement is unappealable, it must be fair, constitutionally valid and duly founded on the evidence found in the process”, in a process in which judges must formulate their conviction “based on the evidence in the process, without pressure of any kind”.

“The Constitutional Council is engaged in the process of validating the election results, reconciling minutes and notices requested from the CNE and minutes and notices requested and made available by some political parties contesting the elections, as well as by civil society organisations – observers,” it also reads.

The statement also points out that the post-election demonstrations that have been taking place in the country since 21 October have “slipped into acts of vandalism and limitations of individual freedoms”, lamenting the loss of human life and the “destruction and theft of other people’s property”, as “a result of daily social instability”.

Presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane has called these demonstrations, which have degenerated into clashes with the police – who have resorted to firing tear gas and shots to disperse them – as a way of contesting the award of victory to Daniel Chapo, the candidate supported by the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo, in power), with 70.67% of the vote, according to the results announced on 24 October by the CNE, which have yet to be validated and proclaimed by the CC.

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