MOZAMBIQUE'S MAIN OPPOSITION PARTY APPEALS ELECTION RESULT

RENAMO leader, Ossufo Momade

By Manuel Mucari, MAPUTO Mozambique

Mozambique’s main opposition party Renamo on Tuesday appealed the result of the Oct. 15 general election, calling on the country’s top court to annul incumbent President Filipe Nyusi’s victory.

Nyusi and his ruling Frelimo party won big in the election, which was hoped would calm tensions in Mozambique, soon to become a top global gas exporter. Instead, the contested result has stoked divisions as opposition parties have cried foul.

“We want the election results to be annulled because they were not elections. They were a caricature, a circus show,” Venâncio Mondlane, a Renamo representative, told Reuters by phone.

Mozambican election staff and materials are
transported to remote areas of the country ahead of
Tuesday's election, in Chongue, Gaza Province,
southern Mozambique, October 14, 2019

“Today we filed the appeal to the Constitutional Council (CC) against the deliberation of the National Election Commission, which we do not agree with. We demand that the CC annul the election results,” Mondlane said.

It was hoped the election could set the seal on a fragile peace pact, designed to put a definitive end to four decades of violence between Frelimo and Renamo.

The two fought a 16-year civil war that ended in a truce in 1992 but have clashed sporadically since.

Renamo had wanted to win control of a number of provinces in Mozambique’s center and north but came away empty handed.