Mozambique: Mondlane to appeal to Constitutional Council after election results – Watch

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique: Mondlane to appeal to Constitutional Council after election results – Watch

5:59 CAT | 17 Oct 2024

Screen grab: Venâncio Mondlane /Facebook

Presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane said on Thursday in Beira, central Mozambique, that after the announcement of the results of the general elections on 9 October, he will appeal to the Constitutional Council with the original result sheets [editais] and notices of the vote.

“At the moment we are aggregating the original public result sheets [editais] at national level. We’re making copies, we’re scanning them, so that we have a digital record of all the material and we’re sending them little by little to Maputo, to see if after the announcement of the national results by the CNE [National Electoral Commission] we can quickly present the appeal to the Constitutional Council,” he said, speaking to journalists.

The district and provincial electoral commissions have already concluded the tabulation of the vote in the general elections on 9 October, which according to public announcements give the advantage to the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo, the ruling party) and the presidential candidate that the party supports, Daniel Chapo, with more than 60% of the vote, although Venâncio Mondlane disputes these results, citing data from the original minutes and notices of the vote, which he collects throughout the country.

“This is our foundation, our concern, because it involves a lot of gymnastics, both in financial terms and in organisational terms, as well as in terms of legal capacity to substantiate the appeal. It’s a huge exercise, so this is what we’re doing at national level, and also, on the other hand, the motivational part. Motivating people, motivating young people, that we have to remain firm, we have to continue to fight on the basis of all the windows that legally exist for this purpose,” said Mondlane.

The CNE has 15 days after the polls close to announce the official results of the elections, a date that falls on 24 October, after which the Constitutional Council will proclaim the results, once it has also concluded its analysis of any appeals, but with no deadline set for this.

In Beira, the presidential candidate supported by the extra-parliamentary Podemos party, complained of intimidation, after on Tuesday the attorney general warned him to refrain from “social unrest and incitement to violence”, pointing out that the politician had committed the crime of disobedience by declaring himself the winner of the general elections.

“The warning is the result of the repeated wave of social unrest, public disobedience, disrespect for the organs of state and incitement and disinformation perpetrated by the candidate for country’s president, Mr Venâncio António Bila Mondlane, at rallies, on social networks and other digital platforms,” the attorney general (PGR) said in a statement.

“It is the legitimisation of a gross and grandiose fraud that has no other way of doing it than to use the justice system for intimidation (…) So that we don’t fight for our rights, so that we don’t fight to restore the truth, so that we don’t fight to defend the will of the people, so it’s all intimidation. It has no legal basis,” he criticised, also targeting the actions of the police.

For the presidential candidate, “one of the windows” for contesting the results that have been announced is the “national strike” he has called for Monday, in both the public and private sectors.

“It’s a basic right that every citizen has, to join a strike, whether in the private or public sector, if they want to. If you don’t want to, you don’t join, but if you want to, you can. You don’t need authorisation from anyone,” he insisted, stressing that it was a peaceful action.

“It’s not a public demonstration to attack institutions. If that happens, it’s out of line with what we want. It’s just paralysing activities. That’s all, it’s no more or less than that,” said Mondlane.

The general elections on 9 October included the seventh presidential elections – for which the current head of state, Filipe Nyusi, who has reached the two-term limit, is no longer running – at the same time as the seventh legislative elections and the fourth elections for provincial assemblies and governors.

Source: Lusa