Maputo, 14 Oct (AIM) – Information circulating on Mozambican social media, according to which the European Union Election Observation Mission has recognized the victory of Independent candidate Venancio Mondlane in last Wednesday’s presidential election is completely false.
A video, lasting for about seven minutes and 45 seconds, was published on YouTube under the description: “Bombshell! European Union recognizes victory of Venancio Mondlane and says that the CNE should publish the minutes” (i.e. the polling station minutes)
Mondlane did declare himself the winner within hours of the close of polls, but neither the EU mission, nor any other observer group recognised him as the winner.
The fact checking unit of the Mozambican chapter of the regional press freedom body, MISA (Media Institute of Southern Africa) issued a release on Monday, stating that, while the video contains genuine extracts from the press conference given last Friday by Laura Ballarin, the head of the EU Observation Mission, at no point did she recognize the supposed victory of Venancio Mondlane.
On the contrary, Ballarin said it is not the job of EU missions to declare who won and who lost elections.
“In no country does an EU Election Observation Mission legitimise or validate election results”, she stressed. The role of the mission was limited to observing and making recommendations.
She mentioned various irregularities noted by the observers, some of which are also described in the video, and stressed recommendations made by the previous EU observer mission, in 2019, to boost the credibility of Mozambican elections.
MISA concludes that, although parts of the video are genuine “the interpretation and narrative it constructs are incorrect and deceitful”.
(AIM)
Pf/ (279)
