Podemos calls for recount of votes

Maputo, 12 Dec (AIM) – Albino Forquilha, the leader of the Optimistic Party for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos), has called for a recount of the votes cast at the ballot boxes in the 9 October general elections in order to produce the “electoral truth.”

Podemos is the party that backed the independent presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, who has been calling for demonstrations since 21 October in order to protest against the allegedly fraudulent results announced by the National Elections Commission (CNE), giving victory to the ruling Frelimo party and its candidate, Daniel Chapo.

According to Forquilha, who was speaking on Wednesday in Maputo during a meeting between his party and the Constitutional Council, the highest body in matters of electoral law, the recount of votes must take place since there is a general mistrust of the election management bodies.

“We have a certain mistrust of the institutions that manage these processes, and the recount is aimed at guaranteeing electoral transparency. It will be difficult to assess as an electoral truth if it is only the Constitutional Council that pronounces and validates the results that it itself has worked on alone, without the participation of others, political party representatives and election observers”, he said.

Forquilha expressed his concern at the fact that the Constitutional Council did not respond to the appeal submitted by Podemos, claiming that “there is no certainty that there will be electoral truth.”

“We would like there to be a response to these cases so that we can effectively monitor this right to complain”, he said.

For her part, Lúcia Ribeiro, chairperson of the Constitutional Council, claimed that there was no possibility of including representatives of political parties or electoral observers in the process of verifying the authenticity of the polling station results sheets (“editais”) and minutes submitted by political parties and the CNE.

She also said that there was no possibility of including representatives of political parties or electoral observers in the recount of votes, as part of the process of validating the election results.

“The decision stems from the fact that the Constitutional Council is a judicial body and not a political one. The political process ends at the CNE, where there are observers and members from the political parties. The Constitutional Council is an Electoral Court without any private or political party interests. Electoral observation does not belong in a judicial body”, Ribeiro said.

The meeting was unprecedented. Never before has the Council met with the leadership of an opposition political party, in front of the country’s media.

Ribeiro openly admitted that fraud had taken place. She said that some of the results sheets examined by the Council were blank or unsigned. In other cases, the same person had obviously signed more than one sheet.

But Ribeiro did not say how pervasive these frauds were or by how much they had affected the results. She declined to give any clues as to the eventual ruling of the Council on the validity or otherwise of the elections.

But she did state that, despite the immense amount of paperwork involved, the Council had analysed all the results sheets and polling station minutes submitted to it.

Surprisingly, Ribeiro said the Council had received no appeal from Venancio Mondlane against the preliminary result of the presidential election announced by the CNE.

Ribeiro claimed that the Council had not received any appeal from any of the four presidential candidates or their agents. There had been plenty of other appeals (notably from Podemos and Renamo), against the CNE resolution approving the preliminary results.

Some of these called for the annulment of the elections, and the Council had decided it could not take a decision on this until the phase of the overall validation of the results.

Forquilha also categorically denied the claim made by police spokesperson Orlando Mudumane that Podemos members have stolen firearms from the police. Podemos has promised to sue Mudumane for libel.
(AIM)
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