Maputo, 29 Oct (AIM) – The Mozambican Bar Association (OAM) has called on the Constitutional Council, the country’s highest body in matters of electoral law, to return the minutes of the National Centralization and General Tabulation of Results to the National Elections Commission (CNE), with an instruction that the CNE must investigate and clarify the fundamental problems it observed during the presidential, parliamentary and provincial elections held on 9 October.
The CNE chairperson, Bishop Carlos Matsinhe, when announcing the election results last Thursday had openly admitted that there were serious problems the CNE had not dealt with, particularly the numerical discrepancies between the three elections.
The CNE should report on the matter to the Constitutional Council, the OAM suggested, and only then should the Council “begin to analyse and discuss the process as a whole, this time in a public session that can be attended at least by the representatives of the presidential candidates and political parties, as well as the media and national and international observers”, reads the document.
The note says that the Constitutional Council must also present all the results sheets (“editais”) produced at all the polling stations nationwide, and if it is not possible to present this evidence, the votes must be recounted.
According to the Bar Association, if the Constitutional Council does not bring electoral justice, the country runs a risk of being drenched in blood.
“We cannot allow a bloodbath in our society, and the signs point in that direction. If we allow this, we will be failing as a state, as a democracy, as a people, just to accommodate unknown interests. The way out of electoral crises in our country must no longer be negotiated, but through constitutional means”, says the document.
“The responsibility of the Constitutional Council has never been as heavy as it is today. It’s time for the constitutional jurisdiction to assert itself, always remembering that the fruit of justice is peace”, says the document.
The document goes on to say that “we have to accept that times have changed. Past elections have all ended in armed conflict. Today the paradigm is different: it is the general population that is demanding transparency and credibility in the election results and it is the police that are violently repressing them, even violating constitutionally enshrined fundamental rights, especially the right to life.”
“The lack of transparency on the part of the electoral management bodies and their support bodies (in this case the National Electoral Commission and the Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration, plus their representations in the cities, districts and provinces) has provoked waves of protests with demonstrations repressed in a deeply violent manner by the police”, reads the document.
(AIM)
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