5 November 2009
Maputo — Mozambique's main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, did not inform the National Elections Commission (CNE), or any of the provincial and district elections commission, of the alleged arrests of its polling station monitors during last week's general elections.
"We only hear about these things through the press", the head of the CNE's legal department, Antonio Chipanga, told AIM on Thursday. "Renamo has never contacted us about any arrests or expulsion of its monitors at the polling stations".
Chipanga pointed out that election candidates and polling station monitors enjoy immunity. The police may not arrest them unless they are caught in the act of committing a crime.
He recalled that, prior to the November 2008 municipal elections, a Renamo candidate in the southern town of Manjacaze was arrested. Renamo informed the CNE at once, whereupon the CNE contacted the Attorney-General's Office and ensured the man's speedy release.
This time, Renamo has kept the CNE in the dark. It has claimed that Renamo monitors were detained in at least 10 polling stations and were refused entry to seven others. But Chipanga said at no time had Renamo contacted the electoral bodies about these abuses.
However, the CNE did become aware, informally, through a couple of phone calls on voting day itself, 28 October, that a Renamo monitor had been arrested at a polling station on Mozambique Island, in the northern province of Nampula. Chipanga said that, when he was informed that same day, CNE chairperson Joao Leopoldo da Costa immediately ordered the release of the monitor.
This incident occurred because of a furious argument in the polling station between the Renamo monitor and a monitor from the ruling Frelimo Party. The returning officer ordered both of them to leave the polling station and finish their argument outside - their places could be taken by the substitute monitors to which each party is entitled.
But a few minutes later the Renamo member clambered back into the polling station through a window, breaking the glass and the mosquito netting to do so. He then physically assaulted the returning officer. It was at this point that the police were called and arrested the monitor.
Despite the violence, Costa insisted that the man should be released, Chipanga told AIM, although the police can certainly charge him with assault and damage to property.
As for the incident at another Mozambique Island polling station, where Renamo says one of its monitors intercepted a voter named Sualehe Malda who was in possession of nine ballot papers, Chipanga said the CNE knew nothing about this prior to the press conference given by Renamo national election agent Saimone Macuiana on Wednesday.
Macuiana said that the Renamo monitor, Bilaly Vuqueque, acted to prevent the ballot papers, five for the presidential and four for the parliamentary election, and all marked in advance for Frelimo, from being slipped into the ballot box. When he demanded that the police arrest Malda, they arrested him instead.
The ballot papers are still in the possession of Renamo, and Macuiana showed them to reporters. But he has not shown them to the CNE. Nor was the handwritten report by Vuqueque sent to the CNE, or to the Mozambique Island district elections commission.
Chipanga said it was in the CNE's own interests for Malda to be detained and questioned, for the CNE wanted to know how she had acquired the ballot papers.
He pointed out that the ballot papers were printed in South Africa, under the supervision of CNE members appointed by both Frelimo and Renamo. There were placed in supposedly tamper-proof packages for each polling station, and then driven directly from South Africa to each of Mozambique's provincial capitals. At the provincial capitals, the kits for each of the districts were assembled, and from the districts they were sent to the polling stations.
At no point in this journey were the sealed bags containing the ballot papers opened, said Chipanga. Only at 07.00 on 28 October, when the polling stations opened, were the bags unsealed, in the presence of political party monitors, and any national or foreign observers or journalists who happened to be at that station.
So, if the ballot papers presented by Macuiana to the press were genuine (and they seemed to be), the CNE certainly wanted to know how the breach of security had occurred. "This is in our interest", said Chipanga. "We need to see those ballot papers and talk to that voter (Malda)".
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
