20 November 2008
Maputo — All across Mozambique, polling stations in the country's third municipal elections held on Wednesday stayed open hours later than originally planned.
The polls were supposed to open at 07.00 and close at 18.00 - but the electoral law also states that anyone still in the queue at 18.00 must be allowed to vote. Journalists stationed in municipalities all over the country reported that there were still long queues at 18.00.
So voting went on into the night. Even at 22.00 some municipalities, such as Mocimboa da Praia in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, still had voters waiting to cast their ballots.
The long queues are an indication of a turn-out far higher than the mere 28 per cent of the registered electorate who voted in the last local elections, in 2003. But there were also strong criticisms of the slowness with which polling station staff were processing the voters.
With voting going on hours later than expected, few polling stations proved able to complete their count and post their results on the station walls before midnight. But some did: the first result announced by Radio Mozambique came from a small polling station in the Maputo neighbourhood of Malhangalene, at which only 282 voters were registered.
Here the mayoral candidate of the ruling Frelimo Party, David Simango, had an easy victory, scoring 96 votes against just 19 for his sole opponent, Eduardo Namburete, of the former rebel movement Renamo.
In the election for members of the municipal assembly at the same station, Frelimo won 97 votes and Renamo 14. The Independent Party of Mozambique (PIMO) and the citizens' group Juntos Pela Cidade (JPC - Together for the City) each won two votes.
In two polling stations in the central city of Chimoio, the Frelimo candidate for mayor, Raul Adriano won 579 votes to 118 for his Renamo opponent, Eduardo Leite.
The first result reported from the southern city of Matola was a crushing victory for the Frelimo candidate Arao Nhancale, with 159 votes, to just eight votes for Jose Samo Gudo of Renamo.
A few incidents were reported as voting drew to a close. This in the central town of Dondo, five people were injured in clashes between Frelimo and Renamo offices near the Renamo district office.
In Marromeu, on the south bank of Zambezi the District Elections Commission lodged a complaint with the police against the Renamo candidate and current mayor, Joao Germano, accusing him of illegal campaigning in the vicinity of the polling stations.
Germano described the accusation as "all lies". He said he did not try to influence any voters at all, but merely delivered food to the Renamo polling station monitors.
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