Maputo, 25 Oct (AIM) – The Anglican Council of Mozambique has urged the electoral bodies, particularly the chairperson of the National Elections Commission (CNE), Bishop Carlos Matsinhe, to observe the electoral law and “to practice the truth”.
Matsinhe is the most senior figure in the Mozambican Anglican Church, and, under normal circumstances, he would chair the Anglican Council. But he did not attend the meeting of the Council which warned that the Mozambican people expect “honesty, integrity, transparency, respect and truthfulness” from election managers.
Matsinhe has been silent in public since the municipal elections of 11 October, described as a gigantic fraud by the opposition parties. He has come under attack in social media from opposition supporters, some of whom have even called him “Bishop of Satan”.
The Mozambique Bar Association (OAM) was so irritated by Matsinhe’s inaction that it called for his resignation.
A pastoral letter from the Council, signed by its Deputy Chairperson, Vicente Msosa, said the Anglican Church laments all failings in election management, and interference by unspecified “other bodies outside the electoral process”.
The letter, cited by the independent television station STV, said that Mozambicans expect from the CNE (and especially from Matsinhe), and from its executive body, the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE), honesty and truthfulness, recalling that, according to the Gospel of St. John, “the truth will set you free”.
The pastoral letter called on all politicians to work for peace, to observe the electoral law, and “to use the institutions of justice in cases that you regard as unjust or illegal. We urge you to do everything to preserve peace”.
The letter says the Anglican Council has been following the reports of irregularities in the municipal elections, and the associated political protests and demonstrations.
These formed “a sad and worrying scenario”, the Council said.
(AIM)
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