Maputo — Mozambique's Constitutional Council (CC), the body in charge of verifying the nomination papers of presidential candidates, has accepted the nominations Armando Guebuza, incumbent president, proposed by the ruling Frelimo Party; Daviz Simango, (Mayor of Beira, and leader of the Mozambique Democratic Movement, MDM) and Afonso Dhlakama (leader of the main opposition party, Renamo) to contest the next presidential elections to be held on October 28.

The CC rejected the remaining six candidates who had also submitted their nomination papers namely Yaqub Sibindy (leader of the Independent Party of Mozambique, PIMO) Raul Domingos (leader of the Party for Peace, Democracy and Development, PDD), Khalid Sidat (leader of the Independent Alliance of Mozambique, ALIMO), Leonardo Cumbe (proposed by the United Party of Mozambique for Democratic Freedom, PUMILD) Jose Viana (leader of the Union of Mozambican Democrats, UDM), Artur Jaquene (proposed by the Electoral Union coalition, formed by the Ecology Party, PEMO, and the National Unity Party, PUN).

According to the ruling of the CC released in Maputo on Friday, the nomination papers of the six candidates were rejected because they failed to collect the required number of signatures, at least 10,000 demanded by law.

The CC states in its ruling on submitting their nomination papers the candidates or their representatives declared a number of signatures, a number of which did not match with what was on paper.

'...During a subsequent physical match of the nomination papers we found numerical discrepancies between the number of supporting signatures declared and those that have been effectively counted, which in no case was relevant in determining the validation of the required minimum number of supporting signatures', reads the document.

Furthermore, the CC considers that the examination of the validity of the nomination papers show a number of irregularities, in general, did affect the nominations.

The ruling explains that these irregularities led to the rejection of some proposers' signatures, which translated in the reduction of the number of supporting signatures required by law (minimum 10,000 thousand and no more than 20,000 voters registered).

These defects include, among others, repeated signatures of the same person in the same or different nomination sheets, mismatch between the name and number of voter's registration card, nomination papers contain forged or fraudulent signatures, nomination papers filled in and signed by the same individuals and same fingerprint used for the different voter's card.

In general, terms, the nomination papers meet all the requirements for submission set out in Article 134 of the Electoral Act and the procedures set by Deliberation 01/CC/09 dated April 23.

The CC confirms that the documents contained in all nominations papers meet all legal requirements for recognition of authenticity or notary certification, and after an examination of their content, it was concluded that they prove the conditions of eligibility of the nominees.

In addition, the approved nomination papers also saw a number of proposers' signatures rejected, which were also been invalidated due to a number of irregularities.

The ruling of the CC was adopted by consent of its four members, while the fifth, Manuel Franque, (member of the CC nominated by Renamo) disagrees arguing that the CC should have given the candidates or their representatives an opportunity to correct the irregularities in their nomination papers.

'I think that CC should have considered correctable those irregularities that led to rejection of the examined nominations papers, regardless of the classification of the irregularities detected on the sheets containing proposers' signatures', said Franque.