Maputo, 17 Nov (AIM) – Mozambique’s Constitutional Council, the country’s highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law, on Wednesday demanded that the National Elections Commission (CNE) produce the polling station minutes and results sheets (“editais”) from the 11 October municipal elections in ten of the country’s municipalities.
The note from the Council ordered the CNE to hand over the editais within 24 hours – that is, by Thursday afternoon. But the CNE failed to comply, and asked for an extra 48 hours to hand over the results sheets.
Specifically, the Council asked for “the 36 editais protested by Renamo in the Quelimane city municipality”, plus the editais from Alto Molocue and Maganja da Costa, in Zambezia province, from Angoche and Mozambique Island (in Nampula), from Matola-Rio (in Maputo province), and from three Maputo city municipal districts (Nlhamankulo, KaMpfumo and KaMavota).
But the CNE failed to provide a single edital. On Thursday, the CNE chairperson, Anglican Bishop Carlos Matsinhe, admitted that the CNE does not have the editais.
So, if the CNE does not have the results sheets, how could it issue preliminary results on 27 October, announcing that the ruling Frelimo Party had won in 64 of the 65 municipalities?
Matsinhe’s admission proves what had been suspected all along – that, far from checking the results, the CNE simply rubber-stamped the results sent by the District Election Commissions (CDEs), despite the accusations of fraud levelled against the CDEs.
So the “intermediate” results announced in the districts, and the preliminary results announced by the CNE are the same thing. The CNE did not bother to verify a single edital, but just repeated what the CDEs had claimed.
CNE spokesperson Paulo Cuinica, in a Thursday interview, claimed that the editais always stay in the municipalities. If this is true, it is illegal, for the law on municipal elections states that the editais must be sent to the CNE (via the district and provincial elections commissions).
That law makes it clear that the CNE must verify the results – which it cannot do, if it has no access to the editais.
The Constitutional Council accepted the CNE’s request for more time, and gave it an extra 72 hours. But it also demanded the polling station minutes and editais from three more Maputo City districts (Kabukwana, KaTembe and KaNhaka), and eight more municipalities, namely Namaacha (Maputo province), Chokwe (Gaza), Homoine (Inhambane), Morrumbala and Milange (Zambezia), Mandimba and Insaca (Niassa), and Moatize (Tete).
Those CNE members appointed by opposition parties suspect that the extra time may be used to forge new editais.
(AIM)
