Maputo, 11 Oct (AIM) – Mozambique’s independent presidential candidate, Venancio Mondlane, on Thursday declared himself the winner of Wednesday’s general elections.
Cited by the independent television station STV, Mondlane claimed victory on the basis of the parallel vote count that he and his supporters have undertaken.
He said that, once sworn in as President, he would form a coalition government, with members from all the major parties, including the ruling Frelimo Party, and the main opposition force, Renamo, from which Mondlane resigned in May.
He promised to set up a “Governance Transition Commission”, which would ensure a peaceful transition “from a regime which has lost elections after 50 years in power, and which must now hand over power to a new governance”.
“We shall form a government that will not depend on political party criteria”, said Mondlane. “It will depend on patriotic criteria, on meritocracy, and above all on commitment to the country”.
He added that “we are not going to persecute anyone”. His government would give a period of two years to “regularize the situation” to all those who had defrauded the Mozambican state, as long as they returned the money they had stolen.
Mondlane assured Mozambique’s foreign partners that no multinational corporation will be expelled from the country, but he warned that the contracts with petroleum and gas companies “will be renegotiated”.
He promised to be “on the side of the people”, declaring “the people are not willing to accept fraudulent election results once again, and to stay for another five years under an illegitimate, illegal and fraudulent government”.
The future, he added, “does not depend on me, Venancio Mondlane. Your future depends on your courage. Young people, now is the time for you to be courageous”.
Very few results from the polling stations have yet been published in the Mozambican media, and those that are available suggest a victory, not for Mondlane, but for the Frelimo candidate, Daniel Chapo.
In some polling stations, Mondlane beats Chapo, but overall Mondlane is coming second. The rise of Mondlane, and of the main extra-parliamentary party supporting him, Podemos, has crushed the established opposition parties, Renamo and the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM).
Their leaders and presidential candidates, Ossufo Momade and Lutero Simango, did very badly, with votes that struggled to reach double figures in many polling stations.
To make his claimed victory credible, Mondlane needs to publish his parallel vote count. Candidates have the right to a copy of the results sheet (“edital”) from each polling station.
It should not be difficult for Mondlane and Podemos to put the results sheets on a website. Then the other candidates can compare them with their own copies of the editais.
(AIM)
Pf/ (452)
