The British authorities have warned their citizens in Mozambique that they should ‘prepare for significant disruption and disturbances’ in the country from next week, as the results of the general elections approach.
A briefing sent last Friday (13) to travellers by the Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), which is responsible for protecting British interests and citizens abroad, calls on them to ‘prepare for significant disruption and disturbances in Mozambique from the week of 16 December’, as well as ‘in the weeks following the announcement’ of the results of the 9 October general elections.
‘The Constitutional Council is expected to validate the results of the presidential elections around 23 December,’ the information recalls, noting that “protests and demonstrations continue to occur with short notice in Mozambique”.
‘These can be unpredictable and even peaceful protests can turn violent and cause casualties,’ the report said, warning that ’roads and border crossings may be restricted, blocked or closed in the short term.’
The president of the Mozambican Constitutional Council (CC), Lúcia Ribeiro, said on Wednesday (11) that the body will analyse ‘the discrepancies’ in the results announced for the October general elections next week, but that it is not recounting votes.
‘To say that the CC is not recounting the votes,’ emphasised Lúcia Ribeiro, during a meeting with representatives of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo, the largest opposition party), justifying the decision with the fact that the National Electoral Commission (CNE) itself admitted, when it announced the results of the general tabulation, “discrepancies between the three elections, but that it hadn’t had time to check”.
‘So the CC, being a judicial body, can’t come and give that same answer. But there remains a curiosity, a responsibility and a duty to understand why there is a discrepancy and where these discrepancies exist. From where did this discrepancy begin to exist?’ stressed the president of the Constitutional Court, the body responsible for validating and proclaiming the results of the 9 October general elections, which included the presidential, legislative and provincial elections.
‘But in this case, where there is a clamour about the figures, then it is the responsibility of the CC, which has to sign these maps, these figures (…). We think it’s up to us to find out what the problem is and where it is. We asked the CNE to explain to us why there were discrepancies and that answer is in the file, which will then be evaluated next week when we sit down to assess the figures,’ she said.
Lúcia Ribeiro explained that the Mozambican electoral process involves first validating and only then proclaiming the results, in accordance with the legislation approved by Parliament, unlike what happens in other countries, which proclaim the winners of the ballot with substantially shorter deadlines and only then decide on any disputes, and in Mozambique the CC is the final decision-making body.
Even so, he admits that this process, marked in 2024 by demonstrations and stoppages called by presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, who doesn’t recognise the results announced by the National Electoral Commission – which still need to be validated by the CC – of contesting the results announced by the CNE, which have already caused more than a hundred deaths, shows that it is necessary to ‘rethink the electoral system in the future.’
Although there are no concrete deadlines, given the approaching end of the current legislature on 12 January, the CC has until 23 December to proclaim the results of these general elections.
Source: Observador