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More Than 17 Million Voters Called to the Polls to Elect a New President

More Than 17 Million Voters Called to the Polls to Elect a New President

More than 17.1 million Mozambicans will go to the polls on Wednesday in general elections, which in addition to the MPs and provincial governors will choose a new president to succeed Filipe Nyusi, who has been in office since 2015.

Polls open across the country at 07:00 and close at 18:00 (one hour less in Lisbon). The National Electoral Commission (CNE) has registered 17,163,686 voters, including 333,839 who will be voting in seven African and two European countries.

Today’s general elections include the seventh presidential elections – for which the current head of state, Filipe Nyusi, who has reached the constitutional limit of two terms, is no longer running – 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).

If there is no second round, the CNE must publish the presidential election results up to 15 days before they are validated by the Constitutional Council. The Council has no deadlines for proclaiming the official results after analysing any appeals.

The vote includes legislative seats (250 MPs) 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 parliament 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, including electoral observation missions from the EU, the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), the African Union, and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), were accredited to monitor these elections.

Mozambique’s government has granted public and private sector workers time off today to “allow them to participate” in the general elections.

This electoral process is budgeted at 19,933 million meticais (€284 million), delivered in phases by the government, totalling 72% of the funds made available to the electoral bodies by Friday, according to information from STAE.

The elections will involve more than 184,500 polling station staff spread across the country’s 154 districts (180,075) and outside the country (4,436). There will be 8,737 polling stations in Mozambique and 334 abroad, corresponding to 25,725 polling stations in the country and 602 abroad, each with seven members.

In Cabo Delgado, which has been experiencing a climate of insecurity for seven years due to attacks by terrorist groups, STAE spokeswoman Regina Matsinhe said to Lusa that the conditions are in place for the vote in terms of material and security.

“The conditions are in place for the election to take place in equal circumstances throughout the country,” said the STAE spokeswoman.

Abroad, the country with the largest number of polling stations for this vote is neighbouring South Africa, with 359. The CNE has approved the setting up of polling stations in Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, and Kenya.

In Europe, there will be five polling stations in Germany (for 670 voters), and 13 in Portugal, for 1,177 registered voters.

See Also

In addition to Lisbon and Porto, voting will take place in the Portuguese cities of Évora, Portimão, Faro, Coimbra, Viseu, Braga, Aveiro, Bragança, and Vila Real.

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