Mozambican citizens will go to the polls tomorrow, 9 October, to exercise their right and express their opinion through a vote that will be decisive in electing the country’s future leaders for the next five years. To this end, the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) has guaranteed that 155 observers will be available to work in Mozambique in the context of the seventh general elections.
In her speech, the head of the mission, Laura Ballarín, explained that during the process, the EU will make an in-depth assessment of all the phenomena observed on the ground, emphasising that the electoral campaign took place in a more peaceful environment compared to previous periods.
‘This will be one of the largest EU observation missions in history. We are not legitimising the elections or validating the results, but we are working in accordance with international principles of impartiality,’ he explained.
Ballarín argued that ‘observations on the ground will be vital if we are to make an informed and factual assessment of polling day. I want to remind you that we make rigorous and exhaustive observations based on technical criteria.’
She emphasised that the mission’s main team ‘will remain in the country until the end of the process’, stressing that the group of observers is also made up of diplomats who are due to arrive in Mozambique in the next few hours.
‘The short-term observers have undergone a two-day training course with our electoral experts and will be distributed in teams of two throughout the country,’ he added.
Figures from the National Electoral Commission (CNE) indicate that more than 17 million voters are registered to vote, including 333,800 registered abroad.
Running for the Presidency of the Republic are Daniel Chapo, supported by the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), Ossufo Momade, supported by the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), Lutero Simango, for the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), and Venâncio Mondlane, a former Renamo member and MP, supported by the Optimist Party for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos), a movement without parliamentary representation.
