Maputo, 29 Oct (AIM) – The Constitutional Council, Mozambique’s highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law, has ruled that there will be no repeat election in the Maputo municipal district of KaMpfumo.
The KaMpfumo district court had accepted an appeal from the main opposition party Renamo which had pointed to serious irregularities during the 11 October municipal elections in the district. The court had annulled the election in KaMfumo, and ordered the vote to be held again.
But the Constitutional Council has now overruled the district court. In a ruling dated last Thursday, the Council said that the court had exceeded its powers, since only the Council has the authority to annul elections.
Furthermore, an election can only be declared null and void, if the illegalities detected could influence substantially the overall result. There was no way the district court could know this, since KaMpfumo is only one of seven municipal districts in the Maputo City municipality.
The council pointed out that the district court did not have in its hands the results from the other municipal districts, and so could not judge whether the irregularities claimed by Renamo did indeed influence the overall result.
But the Council did confirm the second part of the district court ruling which ordered that all indications of possible illicit acts during the KaMpfumo election must be sent to the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The final decision on whether the KaMpfumo results stand will be taken by the Constitutional Council itself when it comes to validate and proclaim the results from all 65 municipalities.
No firm date for this session of the Council has yet been announced, and it is still working its way through the large number of appeals, submitted mostly by Renamo and by the second opposition party, the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM).
(AIM)
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