Observers call for integrity in the repeat elections

Maputo, 1 Dec (AIM) – The “Mais Integridade” (“More Integrity”) Electoral Consortium, which has been observing every stage of Mozambique’s municipal elections, on Friday urged the National Elections Commission (CNE), and its executive body, the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE), to remove all the local electoral bodies from any direct or indirect involvement in the repeat elections due to be held on 10 December.

The Constitutional Council, the country’s highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law, found that in four municipalities the level of illicit behavior by officials was such that it could not validate the results of the 11 October municipal elections.

In Marromeu, on the south bank of the Zambezi, the Council ordered a complete rerun of the election. In Nacala-Port, Gurue and Milange, new elections will be held in certain polling stations, but not the entire municipality.

In a Friday release, Mais Integridade said it was the scale of the illicit behavior in the four towns that had led the Council to annul the October elections. Those crimes were only possible with the involvement of polling station chairpersons, members of the district elections commissions, and local officials of STAE.

It made no sense to entrust the repeat elections to the same people, when they had failed to comply with their obligations during the first elections.

The consortium suggested that the CNE and the central offices of STAE should dispatch their own members and senior officials from Maputo to supervise the repeat elections. The CNE had done this before, when the elections in Gurue were annulled and had to be repeated in 2013.

There are 53,370 registered voters who will have the opportunity to vote again in Marromeu, Nacala, Gurue and Milange.

Mais Integridade noted that, in its recounts in nine municipalities, the Constitutional Council transferred 71,412 votes and 25 municipal assembly seats from the ruling Frelimo Party to the two opposition parties, Renamo and the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM).

“Thus at least 125,000 voters were defrauded on 11 October”, remarked the consortium. “Although the Constitutional Council did not give details of the irregularities and crimes that justified such drastic measures, or state who was responsible for them, the nature, extent and seriousness of the measures applied by the Council can only lead us to conclude that these were serious irregularities during the voting, and particularly during the count”.

Mais Integridade itself had observed some of these crimes, which included ballot box stuffing, the existence of ballot papers marked in advance, hindering party monitors and observers from watching proceedings at the polling stations, deliberate annulment of opposition votes, and the corruption of results sheets (“editais”).

Such fraud was only possible, the release points out, with the involvement of polling station chairpersons, members of the district elections commissions, and district STAE officials. But the very same people are now supervising the repeat elections.

The consortium urged the CNE and STAE to take a decision similar to that taken in Gurue in 2013 “to ensure the integrity of these new elections”.

(AIM)

Pf/ (511)