“Mais Integridade” calls for campaign free of violence

Maputo, 26 Sep (AIM) – The “Mais Integridade” (“More Integrity”) electoral consortium set up by prominent Mozambican NGOs has urged all those involved in preparing the municipal elections scheduled for 11 October to behave with tolerance, “thus making this a moment free of violence or any other form of conflict”.

In a statement issued on Monday, on the eve of the election campaign, Mais Integridade called on the competing parties and groups, their mayoral candidates, and their supporters to refrain from all forms of violence.

Instead, the campaign should be “a moment for the exaltation of democracy, and not of violence and conflict”.

“It is possible for us to write a new history of our elections in Mozambique in which ideas and arguments replace aggression and beatings”, urged the consortium.

Mais Integridade called for “rigorously transparent” behaviour from the National Elections Commission (CNE), from its executive body, the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE) and from the district and city courts. These courts are among the first bodies where complaints of alleged breaches of the electoral laws are presented.

It urged the CNE, STAE and the courts to behave professionally “in order to avoid distrust which leads afterwards to the habitual electoral conflicts, particularly after the voting and the declaration of the results”.

The electoral bodies and the courts, the consortium argued, can free themselves of the suspicion that they are part of the problem, if they just follow the laws and good practices of election management. “As a country”, it warns, “we cannot allow ourselves the luxury of insisting on the same practices which historically have led us to elections that are not credible, and to conflicts”.

Mais Integridade calls on the voters not to abstain, but to go to the polling stations early in the morning of 11 October, armed with their voter cards which prove that they are registered voters. “Voting is one of the most important ways of participating politically in the life of our country”, said the consortium. “It is also a duty of citizenship”.

Mais Integridade will have 249 observers stationed in 37 municipalities and about 200 correspondents in all of the country’s 65 municipalities. The consortium’s observers will observe the election campaign, the voting and the count, up to the final proclamation of the results by the Constitutional Council.

The purpose of the observation, says the consortium, is to contribute to the transparency and integrity of the 2023-2024 electoral cycle, assessing in an objective and unbiased fashion how it unfolds, by producing public and credible information and analyses about the various phases of the process, encouraging the participation of citizens, and helping to reduce electoral tensions.

Particular attention will be paid to the content and strategies adopted by the competing political parties and groups, and their mayoral candidates in publicising their election manifestos, the accessibility of campaign sites to people with disabilities, the participation of women and young people, access to information, the exercise of the freedoms of expression and of the press, and coverage by the mass media.

On voting day, the observers will pay particular attention to the level of preparation and the functioning of the brigades set up at the polling stations, compliance with the opening hours of the polling stations, the availability and functioning of the equipment and material, and the efficiency of the procedures. Mais Integridade says that all its observers have been duly trained to perform these tasks.

The members of Mais Integridade are the Episcopal Justice and Peace Commission (CEJP) of the Catholic Church, the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), the Nucleus of Zambezia Women’s Associations (NAFEZA), Solidarity-Mozambique (SoldMoz), the Civil Society Learning and Training Centre (CESC), the Mozambican chapter of the regional press freedom body, MISA (Media Institute of Southern Africa), and the Forum of Mozambican Associations of the Disabled (FAMOD).

(AIM)
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