MAPUTO, Mozambique
The Optimistic Party for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos), which supported the independent candidate Venancio Mondlane, in the presidential election of 9 October, has published its parallel count of the votes, which gives a clear victory to Mondlane and to Podemos itself.
The results from the parallel
count, for the four presidential candidates, were as follows:
- Lutero Simango (MDM): 379,247 (4.92 per
cent)
- Daniel Chapo (Frelimo): 2,906,601 (35.66
per cent)
- Venancio Mondlane (independent): 4,419,040
(53.38 per cent)
- Ossufo Momade (Renamo) 539,515 (6.04 per
cent)
It is quite impossible to
reconcile these figures with the official results released last Thursday by the
National Elections Commission (CNE).
According to these results,
Chapo enjoyed an overwhelming victory with over 70 per cent of the votes, with
Mondlane a distant runner-up, with 20.3 per cent.
In the parliamentary election,
Podemos claimed that its parallel count gives it a sizeable majority in the new
parliament. It will have 138 out of the 250 seats, compared with 91 for
Frelimo, 12 for Renamo and seven for the MDM.
By comparison, the CNE’s
official results allocated 195 seats to Frelimo, and just 55 to the opposition parties.
The parallel count forms part
of the Podemos appeal against the results to the Constitutional Council,
Mozambique’s highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law. But
it should be noted that, just like the CNE’s results, the Podemos count is not
accompanied by any polling station results sheets (“editais”).
Podemos says it has most of
the genuine editais, but so far it has not published them. It is possible,
however, that the results sheets are included in the vast amount of
documentation that Podemos has submitted to the Constitutional Council, and
that the Council will consider them.
Without the editais, it would
be unwise to declare either the CNE’s results or the Podemos parallel count as
correct.
Podemos admits that it does
not have all the editais. The Podemos count is of 71.7 per cent of the polling
stations. Although Podemos believed this is “a very credible sample”, it falls
well short of 100 per cent.
Podemos says it could not
cover all the polling stations because in some cases the electoral bodies
refused to issue credentials for its monitors, in others the credentials were
stolen and the CNE refused to issue new ones, and in still others the credentials
were for districts other than the ones requested.
At some polling stations, the
staff illegally refused to announce the results of the count or to sign the
results sheets (“editais”).
Worse still, there were cases
where the results of the count were fraudulently altered. In others, the
editais from different polling stations were filled in and signed by the same
person. Such clearly fake results sheets could not be used for the parallel
count.
Podemos says it is appending
the “manifestly fraudulent minutes and editais” in its appeal to the
Constitutional Council as proof of election fraud.
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