Maputo, 19 Oct (AIM) – The district court in the Maputo municipal district of KaMavota, on Wednesday ordered a recount of the votes cast during last week’s municipal elections in 185 of the district’s 248 polling stations.
Mozambique’s main opposition party, Renamo, had appealed against the “intermediate count” in the district which gave victory to the ruling Frelimo Party. The court found that there had indeed been irregularities in the count which distorted the result.
The court took evidence from the second opposition party, the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), which had its own copies of the results sheets (“editais”). These were startlingly different from the results presented by the KaMavota District Elections Commission.
Thus, according to the report on the court case in Thursday’s issue of the independent daily “O Pais”, the Commission claimed that, at polling station 0102329-03, for example, Renamo had won 149 votes and Frelimo 290. But the results sheets presented by the MDM showed that Renamo had won at this station by 249 votes to 190 for Frelimo.
Renamo representative Ivan Mazanga, declared that the court’s decision to recount the votes is an opportunity “to rescue the will of the electorate”.
“The Mozambican public and the citizens of Maputo can celebrate, because what was really deposited in the ballot boxes will be revealed”, Mazanga said.
This is the third Maputo municipal district to accept a Renamo appeal against the declared results. The KaMpfumo and Nlhamanculo district courts went beyond a recount, and ordered that the entire election should be repeated.
On Thursday Renamo protested against what it regards as fraudulent results by boycotting the end-of-year sitting of the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic.
Renamo spokesperson Jose Manteigas declared on Wednesday that the Renamo parliamentary group would not attend the solemn opening session of parliament.
He said the Renamo deputies are following up all the correspondence necessary “to restore the electoral truth and the sovereign will of the people”. (This correspondence consists largely of appeals to the Constitutional Council, the country’s highest body in terms of constitutional and electoral law).
Whether the Renamo deputies attend later sessions of this parliamentary sitting, said Manteigas, would depend on the behavior of the Frelimo majority and its attitude towards “restoring electoral truth”.
The MDM parliamentary group followed Renamo in boycotting the opening session. Thus the sitting opened with only the Frelimo deputies present.
Ever since the first multi-party elections, in 1994, Renamo has sporadically boycotted parliament, usually to little effect. The current boycott merely deprives Renamo and the MDM of a chance to explain their concerns about the municipal elections to a national public.
For the opening sessions of all parliamentary sittings are always broadcast live on radio and television. Hence, the head of the Frelimo parliamentary group, Sergio Pantie, was able to boast of Frelimo’s supposed victories at the ballot box, without any dissenting voices from the opposition.
The Renamo and MDM groups would have been able to explain in detail why they considered the elections fraudulent. Instead, they opted for absence.
This parliamentary sitting, among many other items on its agenda, will discuss the long-awaited bill to set up a sovereign wealth fund, the annual report from the Ombudsman, and the plan and budget for 2024. One of the high points of the sitting will be the annual report on the state of the nation by President Filipe Nyusi.
(AIM)
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