Polling stations in the Mozambican general elections, including the choice of the new Mozambican President, began to close at 18:00 (17:00 in Lisbon), followed by a period of up to 15 days for the national results to be known.
On a tour of Maputo carried out by Lusa, it was possible to see voters waiting at polling stations at 6pm, in which case they could receive tickets, provided they had arrived before the deadline.
Voting took place without any major incidents, according to the National Electoral Commission (CNE), which has scheduled a debriefing press conference for this evening, despite criticism from opposition parties and candidates over the lack of accreditation for polling station agents and alleged problems with the ballot papers.
Observers reported normal voting, occasional delays in the opening of polling stations and the strong turnout of voters, especially in the morning, with widespread queues.
The CNE registered 17,163,686 voters for this vote, including 333,839 in seven African and two European countries.
More than 184,500 polling station staff were involved in the elections, spread across the country’s 154 districts (180,075) and outside the country (4,436).
There were 8,737 polling stations in Mozambique and 334 abroad, corresponding to 25,725 polling stations in the country and 602 stations abroad (South Africa, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Germany and Portugal), each with seven members.
Today’s general elections included the seventh presidential elections – for which the current head of state, Filipe Nyusi, who has reached the constitutional limit of two terms, no longer runs – at the same time as the seventh legislative elections and the fourth elections for provincial assemblies and governors.
Running for president are Lutero Simango, backed by the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM, the third largest parliamentary force), Daniel Chapo, with the support of the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo, in power since 1975), Venâncio Mondlane, backed by the extra-parliamentary Podemos party, and Ossufo Momade, with the support of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo, the largest opposition party).
The publication of the results of the presidential election by the CNE, if there is no second round, takes up to 15 days, before they are validated by the Constitutional Council, which has no deadlines for proclaiming the official results after analysing any appeals.
The vote included legislative seats (250 deputies) and seats for provincial assemblies and their respective provincial governors, in this case with 794 mandates to be distributed. The CNE approved lists of 35 political parties running for the Assembly of the Republic and 14 political parties and groups of voting citizens for the provincial assemblies.
According to data from the Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE), 11,516 national observers and 412 international observers were accredited to monitor these elections, including Electoral Observation Missions from the EU, the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP), the African Union and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), among other organisations.
Lusa
