Maputo, 24 Oct (AIM) – Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo Party has appealed to the Constitutional Council, the country’s highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law, asking it to annul the decision by the Matola district court which ordered a recount of all the votes cast in Matola during the municipal elections of 11 October.
According to a report on the independent television station, STV, the Matola court, when reacting to the Frelimo appeal, noted that it used exactly the same arguments as the Matola City Elections Commission (CEC) had used in an earlier appeal against a recount.
Frelimo was recycling those arguments three days after the CEC’s appeal. Both the appeals claimed that the district court did not have the power to order a recount.
The court found it strange that “the grounds for this appeal are the same as those presented in the appeal submitted by the supervisory body, the Matola City Elections Commission, which in principle should be impartial, unbiased and without any political party interest in the case”.
To make matters worse for the Commission, six of the CEC members have said the appeal was made by its Chairperson, without consulting the other members.
Like all electoral bodies in Mozambique, the Matola Commission is deeply politicized, with members appointed by political parties. The chairperson is a Frelimo supporter, and the six opposition-appointed members say he acted unilaterally.
Thus the appeal did not come from its Commission, but only from its chairperson, Carolina Cumbane. So the other CEC members have also appealed to the Constitutional Council urging that the appeal submitted by Cumbane should be declared null and void “because the decision was not approved at an ordinary session of the body”.
Election commissions are collegiate bodies, and a 2018 resolution from the National Elections Commission (CNE) states that any decision must be discussed in a full meeting of the body.
The six signatories argued that it is not within the powers of the Commission to submit appeals. That is the task of “the interested parties”, who are “the political parties and not the Commission”, said the deputy chairperson, Ezequiel Inacio. “We can only arbitrate. We cannot be referees and players at the same time”.
The Commission’s appeal contained an appended document claiming that the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), which made the original, successful call for a recount, has now dropped the case.
But the MDM says this document is invalid because its election agent signed it under duress. He has now withdrawn it and has submitted a complaint.
The MDM’s mayoral candidate for Matola, Augusto Pelembe, said the election agent had no bodyguard or other form of security, and so was forced to sign the document. But that intimidation was useless, he added, “because the judge had already approved our appeal, and it’s now gone to the Constitutional Council”.
The six opposition appointees on the CEC also accuse Cumbane of usurping the functions of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which is responsible “for representing the State before the courts and defending the interests determined by law”.
They also want Cumbane to be removed from office “due to her demonstrated lack of capacity to lead a body as important as the CEC”.
The “intermediate count” announced for Matola claimed that Frelimo had won the election.
However, a parallel count of the results from 791 of the 895 Matola polling stations, by the “Mais Integridade” (“More Integrity”) civil society election observation coalition, showed that the main opposition party, Renamo, won 59 per cent of the vote to 34 per cent for Frelimo and six per cent for the MDM.
The parallel count is not official – but the only way to prove it false would be to compare the polling station results sheets (“editais”) used by Mais Integridade with those held by the CEC.
(AIM)
Pf/ (640)
