Mozambique: Nyusi appoints senior member of Renamo as ambassador to Algeria
File photo: CIP Eleições
Four provinces are trying to prevent independent observation – Nampula, Zambezia, Tete and Gaza. With no time left, 3103 EISA observers still do not have credentials. EISA is the biggest independent observation coalition, coordinating five independent civil society observer groups. Today (Monday) only 276 credentials were issued to EISA, 115 in Tete and 161 in Maputo province. Yesterday just 248 credentials were issued for EISA – 110 in Nampula and 138 in Manica. Only 129 were issued Saturday, all in Maputo city. In the past four days, no credentials were issued to EISA independent observers in Gaza or Zambezia. Even the Catholic Church has been denied election observation credentials in Tete, where there is a concerted effort to prevent independent electoral observation.
Zambezia says it has issued an incredible 19,700 observer credentials and Nampula has issued 9,935. In Zambezia and Nampula thousands of Frelimo-aligned observers have been given credentials and will flood polling stations tomorrow, while independent observers have been denied credentials. In Zambezia, EISA requested 1433 credentials, which by law must be issued, but so far only 206 of the 19,700 credentials are for EISA.
In the other three key provinces, Nampula, Tete and Gaza, fewer than half of EISA observers have credentials.
International observers have been told since yesterday that EISA groups are being given credentials in Zambezia and Tete, but none have been handed over in Zambezia and very few in Tete. It is possible that credential will be held back until tomorrow morning after voting has started, and it is too late to get the credentials to observers in remote areas, as happened in Nampula in 2014.
Tete, Zambezia and Nampula are key battlefields where Renamo hopes to elect governors and gain a majority for presidential candidate Ossufo Momade; Gaza has registered 300,000 more voters than the census says there are voting age adults and the fear is that these ghosts will vote for Frelimo. The opposition fears that without observers to check, Frelimo will use fraud to improperly inflate it vote in these four key provinces.
Battle to control voting
Electoral management bodies in Mozambique have fallen into disrepute and increasingly, after voting, people want to remain in the vicinity of polling stations to “control or oversee the vote”, most notably in opposition zones. This is openly supported by Renamo and MDM, the two largest opposition parties.
The electoral law allows independent observers, party delegates, and party-nominated polling station staff within the polling stations. They should provide adequate monitoring and control over misconduct during the counting of ballots, which occurs in the polling station. But in this election, provincial election commissions have refused to allow observation by more than 3000 independent civil society observers, and there are complaints from opposition parties that some of their delegates (poll watchers) and nominated polling station staff are also being excluded. Renamo this afternoon issued a statement in Zambezia that party delegates have been refused credentials in six districts and in Mulevala credentials were taken back under the pretext of correcting an error, but not returned. This violates the law and the balance has shifted so there is no independent monitoring of the counting of votes in many key places.
The law does say every voter must leave after they vote, and cannot remain within 300 meters of the polling station. “Opposition parties are in consensus on this basic principle that people should vote and remain because the law does not prevent people from staying beyond 300 meters from the polling stations,” said Venâncio Mondlane, Renamo national representative, after signing an agreement between six parties to stop fraud.
The president of the National Election Commission (CNE), Sheik Abdul Carimo, in his usual exhortation, urged all voters to leave after voting. But he did not exhort provincial elections commissions to obey the law and issue observer credentials.
Police spokesperson Orlando Mudumane at a press conference this morning said that “voters who have voted at the polling stations are prohibited from staying, and the police will intervene whenever necessary, using all legally established forms to prevent wrongdoing by anyone who might discredit the voting process.”
The CNE president signed a notification on Friday (11 October) addressed to the Renamo Secretary General, informing the largest opposition party that “voters are not allowed to stay at the polling stations.” Carimo specifically mentions Manuel de Araujo, Renamo candidate for governor of Zambezia. “The CNE has learned that the candidate and head of the list for the province of Zambezia, citizen Manuel Antonio Alculete Lopes de Araujo, recommends to voters and supporters of his candidacy and his party to stay near polling centres,” says the notification.
Both the opposition and the CNE and the police are right. No one shall remain within 300 meters of polling centres except duly accredited persons. But outside this perimeter, there is no legal prohibition. And the opposition is calling on people to stay outside the 300 meter perimeter.
The fear is that the police will use force to disperse people who are outside the 300 meters. In previous elections this generated riots, and police resorting to the use of tear gas to disperse people. In some cases, the police used the pretext of scattering people around polling stations to break into polling stations, take ballot boxes with ballot papers and disappear. In last year’s municipal elections this happened at some polling stations in Quelimane, Lichinga, and Marromneu.
In some countries like Ghana people are legally allowed to sit near polling stations and watch the count. In Mozambique, in the revision of the Electoral Law this proposal was put but rejected by parliament.
But without independent observers and party agents inside, who watches the count?
By Joseph Hanlon
Independent #Domestic #Observers unlawfully DENIED #accreditation by electoral authorities #CNE/STAE in crucial constituencies: #Zambezia #Tete and #Sofala in #Mozambique’s problematic 2019 election. Only 1/3 of @CDD_Moz’s 2000 observers were accredited in these constituencies. pic.twitter.com/fmm0LKlQWo
— Prof. Adriano Nuvunga (@adriano_nuvunga) October 14, 2019
Group picture of the EISA EOM that will be deployed across all ten provinces of Mozambique. EISA’s EOM is led by His Excellent, the former President of the Republic of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama. The Deputy Mission leader is EISA Executive Director Denis Kadima. pic.twitter.com/S6FXVfmAvm
— EISA (@EISAfrica) October 14, 2019
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