“We believe that the president of the National Electoral Commission and his entire team are not in a position to remain in office after all this imbroglio, not least because the will of the people and electoral transparency are not negotiable,” the association said in a statement.
The organisation noted that, “the number of decisions annulling the results of polling stations and district tallies in various municipalities across the country reveals, without a shadow of a doubt, a prior agreement to vitiate the election results”.
To ensure that these cases of manipulation of results are not repeated, the association will monitor the actions of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in investigating the material and moral perpetrators of the electoral crimes denounced by the district courts, the statement said.
We must avoid “perpetuating a culture of tolerance and social excuses for these practices that have long been ingrained in our society and are detrimental to the consolidation of democracy”, the statement added.
The association considered it encouraging that district courts have intervened “in a timely manner” in cases related to local elections but criticised the fact that “rigid formalities still prevail in the process of challenging elections”.
“Electoral justice is one of the basic pillars of democracy, which is why we expect judicial decisions to be more effective,” the organisation emphasised.
The sixth local elections in Mozambique took place in 65 municipalities last Wednesday, including 12 new municipalities which went to the polls for the first time.
According to intermediate district and provincial results released by the Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE) in recent days for 50 municipalities, the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) won in 49 and the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), the third largest party, in Beira.
At least four district courts have cancelled the vote, alleging various irregularities, most notably the falsification of public notices. The “Mais Integridade” consortium, a coalition of Mozambican non-governmental organisations, accused Frelimo of manipulating the results of the local elections on the 11th, leading to “a high level of fraud”.
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