Frelimo wins in 44 Autarchic Councils

The average participation in the local elections on 10 has reached a record 60.3%, an observation platform, based on voting in the 53 municipalities of the country, was announced on Tuesday.The Mozambican civil society organization, Centro de Integridade Pública (CIP), in a statement said that the figure means "a significant increase" in relation to the previous elections, 46% in 2013, 46% in 2008 and 28% in 2003 .

"The city of Maputo had a 63% share and Matola, the second largest municipality in the country, 59%, compared to 50% and 38%, respectively, in the previous elections," he adds.Four municipalities had a share of over 70%, with Metangula, in the northern province of Niassa, registering the highest participation: 77%.In contrast, Malema, Nampula province, had the lowest participation (39%).The Mozambican Liberation Front (Frelimo, ruling party) dominated the map, with 44 victories, but the CIP said that "the opposition has won 49% of the votes at the national level".The Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) and the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) conquered nine municipalities together.The MDM won in the city of Beira, the provincial capital of Sofala.

Renamo won in the provincial capitals of Nampula and Quelimane and in the municipalities of Nacala, Angoche, Malema, Ilha de Moçambique, Chiúre and Cuamba, judicially resorting to results in five others: Moatize, Monapo, Marromeu, Alto Molócue and Matola.

At the heart of accusations of electoral fraud in Mozambique’s second largest city, Matola, during last Wednesday’s municipal elections is the appearance of three results sheets (“editais”), all of them purporting to give the sum of the votes from the 706 Matola polling stations, but with different numbers.

All three appear genuine, and seem to bear the stamp of the Matola City Elections Commission (CEC), and the signature of its chairperson, Carlos Come.The first results sheet claimed that the main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, defeated the ruling Frelimo Party by a narrow margin (less than one per cent). The second results sheet reversed the result, giving victory by Frelimo.But the official “intermediate count” is contained in the third results sheet, read out by Come, at the ceremony announcing the results on Saturday. It shows almost 23,000 fewer votes cast, and gives Frelimo a narrow victory (again, less than one per cent). Here are the main figures from the three sheets:

Results sheet 1

Votes cast: 320,871

Renamo: 146,341 (47.46 per cent)

Frelimo: 144,744 (46.95 per cent)

MDM: 16,759 (5.42 per cent)

Results sheet 2

Votes cast: 320,871

Frelimo: 148,744 (48.15 per cent)

Renamo: 146,631 (47.46 per cent)

MDM: 12,759 (4.13 per cent)

Results sheet 3

Votes cast: 297,809

Frelimo: 137,875 (48.05 per cent)

Renamo: 135,678 (47.28 per cent)

MDM: 11,799 (4.11 per cent)

The second deputy chairperson of the Matola CEC, Torina Miquitai, cited by the independent television station STV, insists that only the first results sheet is genuine. It is the only one recognised by the CEC members appointed by Renamo and the MDM.“We don’t know where those results came from”, declared Miquitai, referring to the other two results sheets.Romao Rego, a CEC member appointed by the MDM, said that none of the Renamo and MDM members signed the later two results sheets.

“I was a member of the commission that organised the electoral operations”, he said, “and I don’t know the results that were announced on Saturday. I never saw them before, and on the day of the count, none of those numbers were on the printed document”.The second results sheet kept unaltered the total number of voters, the number of blank ballots (3,129) and the number of invalid votes (8,806). The number of votes for Renamo also remained the same. But exactly 4,000 votes were taken from the MDM and transferred to Frelimo. The Renamo and MDM members supposedly witnessed the production of this sheet, but did not agree with the changes made and so did not sign it.

The third results sheet is completely different. 23,000 votes have disappeared, increasing the abstention rate from 36.3 to 40.8 per cent. Votes have vanished from all three of the major parties, and also from the five minor parties contesting the election (although their total vote was negligible, amounting to less than half a per cent in all three sheets).This third sheet is signed, the opposition parties say, only by the Frelimo appointees on the CEC. The MDM and Renamo appointees say they do not know where and how the third result sheet was produced.The director of the Matola branch of the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE), Augusto Langa, told STV that he only recognises the third sheet, and knows nothing of the other two sheets.

STV tried unsuccessfully to contact Carlos Come. He has six cell phone numbers, and was not answering any of them. Come has worked at the state security service, and was once head of the Criminal Investigation Police (PIC).Frelimo says that it has nothing to do with the dispute over the three results sheets. The head of the Frelimo brigade for the elections in Maputo province, Political Commission member Eduardo Mulembue, speaking at a press conference in Matola on Tuesday, said that investigating any irregularities was the job of the electoral bodies, not of the political parties.

“The party does not get involved in this”, he said. “We don’t have anything to do with any kind of electoral offence which might be imputed to the party”.

“In the event of anything illicit, or any dispute, those who are complaining should follow the legal procedures, and we shall wait to find out the bases of the disputes”, Mulembue added. “There are appropriate bodies for this, and there are courts to handle cases of this sort”.But, as far as Mulembue was concerned, Frelimo had won. “We are pleased with the work done by the electoral bodies”, he said. “Our victory represents the vote of confidence which the municipal citizens have once again given to Frelimo”.

The three contradictory editais all refer to the same set of results from the same 706 polling stations. All the main parties have copies of all the polling station results sheets: it seems that the simplest way to solve the problem is to compare the Renamo or MDM copies of the polling station results, one by one, with the copies used by the CEC/STAE. They can all be put on a website, and examined by an independent body – this can be done at once, if there is the political will. (AIM)