Renamo wins in last municipality to declare – AIM report, Mozambique Elections

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Renamo wins in last municipality to declare – AIM report, Mozambique Elections

10:59 CAT | 17 Oct 2018

In file CoM

In the last of Mozambique’s 53 municipalities to declare its results from last Wednesday’s local elections, the town of Malema in the northern province of Nampula, the main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, won.

Renamo had a lead of over five per cent over the ruling Frelimo Party. The second opposition party, the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), took over eight per cent of the vote. Thus, taken together, the two opposition parties outpolled Frelimo.

The results declared by the Malema District Elections Commission (CDE) were as follows:

Renamo: 4,788 (47.82 per cent)

Frelimo: 4,267 (42.62 per cent)

MDM: 825 (8.24 per cent).

The turnout in Malema was only 36.5 per cent – much lower than in many other municipalities.

According to the results given by the district and city elections commissions, Frelimo won in 44 of the municipalities, Renamo in eight and the MDM in one. But five of the Frelimo victories are strongly contested by Renamo, which has presented evidence of serious fraud.

A triumphalist headline in Tuesday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”, claimed “Votes confirm hegemony of Frelimo”, which suggests that the headline writer does not know the meaning of the word “hegemony”. For in reality the major gains were made by Renamo, which had its best result ever in municipal elections.

“Noticias” based its hegemony claim on the absolute number of votes won by each party:

Frelimo: 1,160,008 (51.95 per cent)

Renamo: 864,682 (38.71 per cent)

MDM: 189,915 (8.5 per cent)

Others: 18,883 (0.84 per cent)

This is the slimmest majority Frelimo has ever enjoyed in municipal elections. Furthermore, the opposition-held municipalities include four major cities: Nampula, Quelimane and Nacala for Renamo and Beira for the MDM.

In nine of the municipalities, no party has over 50 per cent of the vote. This means there will be no absolute majority in those municipal assemblies. The largest party will thus have to negotiate with the other forces in order to pass such documents as the municipal plan and budget.

None of the results are definitive yet. They have to be approved by the National Elections Commission (CNE), and then validated by the Constitutional Council, the highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law.

Renamo must contest the results it disputes first with the District Elections Commissions. CNE spokesperson Paulo Cuinica told AIM on Tuesday that the CNE is still receiving material from the districts, and does not yet know how many complaints Renamo has really made.

The electoral law gives the CNE a deadline of 15 days – that is, up until 25 October – to publish the results. Cuinica said the CNE is working to beat this deadline and publish earlier.

ALSO READ: Moatize results fraudulent, declares Renamo – Mozambique Elections, AIM report

Source: AIM