
Maputo, 15 Oct (AIM) – Albino Forquilha, president of PODEMOS (Optimistic Party for the Development of Mozambique), the party that backs the independent presidential candidate Venancio Mondlane, claims that the results so far announced for last Wednesday’s general elections are false and are intended to benefit the ruling Frelimo party and Renamo, the country’s largest opposition party.
According to Forquilha, who was speaking to reporters on Monday, in Maputo, Podemos won the elections, but the electoral bodies – the National Elections Commission (CNE) and the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE) – are publishing false figures in order to harm Podemos.
“The results we are getting at district level are not what the people voted for. Members of the polling station staff are receiving ‘superior orders’ so that PODEMOS doesn’t get either first or second place. We have proof of what we are saying because we have the minutes and notices from the polling station”, he said.
Forquilha believes that there is a scheme set up to benefit Frelimo and Renamo.
Since Mozambique introduced multi-party elections in 1994, Renamo has always been the runner-up in presidential and parliamentary elections, losing only to Frelimo. However, the results so far announced from Wednesday’s elections suggest that, for the first time, Renamo will lose its status as the country’s largest opposition party to Podemos.
“There are plans set up so that PODEMOS can’t get the first place it deserves, nor the second place, in order to benefit Renamo. The ultimate aim of this plan is to honor the existing commitments between Frelimo and Renamo to remain the only relevant parties on the country’s political scene”, Forquilha claimed.
But in almost all the results that AIM has seen from Wednesday’s voting, Venancio Mondlane comes second in the presidential poll, and Podemos comes second in the parliamentary election. Renamo and its president, Ossufo Momade, come a distant third. It is difficult to see how these results could be credibly altered.
Forquilha warned that “PODEMOS will never accept or allow the promulgation of the results by the Constitutional Council without there being a comparison between the results announced by the district elections commissions and those we have, district by district.”
Last Friday, Venancio Mondlane claimed that the data so far processed by his supporting team show that he won Wednesday’s election, while Daniel Chapo, candidate of the ruling Frelimo party, comes in second place.
He also accused Frelimo of manipulating the results since many districts in the country do not have the “objective conditions to complete the intermediate count. So they are fabricating false results sheets (“editais”) with higher numbers than those who actually voted.”
But Podemos has not published any of the results sheets on which its claim of victory are based, and most of the results sheets which AIM has seen do not indicate a Podemos victory.
Forquilha also told reporters that he is quite willing to relinquish his position as President of Podemos, in favour of Venancio Mondlane, if that is what the Podemos membership wants.
At the moment, Mondlane is not even a member of Podemos. He used to be a senior figure in Renamo, and had hoped to stand as Renamo candidate in the presidential election.
That hope was dashed when the Renamo leadership refused to allow him to attend the party’s congress in May. Mondlane than resigned from Renamo, and announced his intention to run for the presidency as an independent.
Several extra-parliamentary parties opted to support his presidential, of which Podemos is by far the most significant.
(AIM)
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