Mozambique’s governing party, Frelimo, has been officially declared the winner in 49 of the 50 municipalities for which the tabulation of the intermediate results of the local elections has been completed, in the face of vocal challenges from opposition parties and civil society organisations.
According to data that has been released in recent days by the district and provincial election commissions, on the tabulation of the intermediate results of the 11 October elections in 65 municipalities, the victories attributed to Frelimo, Mozambique’s ruling party, reach a voting rate of 97% in the municipalities of Chitima and Massingir, in the provinces of Tete and Gaza, respectively.
In the municipality of Vilanculo, Inhambane province, Frelimo’s victory, according to the electoral bodies, was 48.55%, against 48.38% for Renamo, the largest opposition party nationally, in this case with a difference of just 34 votes, but a result that was also contested.
Among the victories awarded to Frelimo were the results in the capital, Maputo, and three towns in Maputo province, as well as six municipalities in Zambézia, all seven in Cabo Delgado, six in Inhambane, seven in Nampula, six in Manica, two in Niassa, four in Gaza and five in Tete.
In Sofala, the third-largest party nationally, the MDM, won Beira, the only city not in the hands of Frelimo, which won at least two others in that province.
Monday is the deadline for finalising the intermediate tabulation of results by province.
The leader of Renamo, Ossufo Momade, said on Sunday that the party had won the local elections and that it did not recognise the results announced by the electoral bodies, denouncing what he said was a “mega-fraud” to “maintain” the country’s president, Filipe Nyusi, and his Frelimo party in power in Mozambique. He announced nationwide demonstrations to repudiate the official results, starting from Tuesday, and recourse to the courts.
“The mega-fraud, the manipulation of the election results, are aimed at creating an atmosphere of war so that Mr. Filipe Jacinto Nyusi and the Frelimo party can remain in power illegitimately,” Momade said, speaking in Maputo at the end of an extraordinary extended meeting of his party’s National Political Committee.
These sixth local elections since independence took place across the country on Wednesday in 65 municipalities, including 12 new ones, where voters went to the polls for the first time to elect local bodies. In the 2018 municipal elections, Frelimo won in 44 of the 53 municipalities and the opposition in only nine: Renamo in eight and the MDM in Beira.
“It’s an authentic annihilation of democracy in Mozambique,” said Momade, saying that his party’s leadership had determined that the Frelimo head of state and the forces overseen by his goverment were to blame: “Hold the President of the Republic and the Police of the Republic of Mozambique responsible for all the instability and social upheaval as a result of electoral fraud.
“The National Political Commission was very pleased to note that the Renamo party won the local elections,” said Momade, citing data from the parallel count using minutes from polling stations, and criticising the National Electoral Commission (CNE) for what he said was the “scenario of an authentic denial of free, fair and transparent elections.”
Renamo, he said, had decided “not to accept and repudiate all the election results that are being released.
“Where we won, we want victory,” he declared. “No particular party can postpone victory.”
He listed the municipalities of Nampula, Quelimane, Vilanculo, Angoche, Nacala, Ilha de Moçambique, Matola, Marracuene and Maputo as examples of where Renamo had won, saying that the “minutes pasted on the walls” immediately after the vote count are proof of this. “But it [the CNE] he was instructed by the [Frelimo] Central Committee to change the scenario. And we’re not going to accept it.”
The Renamo leader complained that “in several municipalities, the electoral registers delivered to the political parties were different from those in the polling stations” and that this “prevented the candidate delegates from monitoring and controlling the vote.”
In addition, he said, “in almost all the municipalities, when the results gave the Renamo party a large lead, the police invaded the polling stations, shooting and throwing tear gas to interrupt the vote in progress. And then they took the ballot boxes to an unknown location, unaccompanied by the candidates’ delegates, polling station staff and observers.”
