Maputo — The Attorney General's Office (PGR) has dismissed the request by Mozambique's largest opposition party, Renamo, to suspend the ruling from the Constitutional Council that validates and proclaims the results of the Municipal Elections held on 11 October.
In a note issued on Tuesday, the PGR claims that Renamo's request is unfounded, "due to a lack of legal grounds.'
"The position of the Public Prosecutor's Office', said the PGR, "is due to the fact that the decisions of the Constitutional Council cannot be appealed, contrary to what happens in the common jurisdiction'.
Renamo is well aware that there can be no appeal against Council rulings, and so its appeal called only for the suspension of the ruling that validated the elections, on the grounds that this ruling is unconstitutional.
Renamo claimed that the Council had usurped the powers of the country's parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, and also complained that it had given no explanation for its decisions.
The latter point is certainly true. The Council's ruling in part corrected the fraud that had characterized the municipal elections. It declared that in four municipalities (Quelimane, Chiure, Alto Molocue and Vilankulo) the National Elections Commission (CNE) had wrongly declared the ruling Frelimo Party the winner, while in reality the party with the largest number of votes was Renamo.
The Council also transferred tens of thousands of votes from Frelimo and Renamo in Maputo and the adjacent city of Matola, while ensuring that Frelimo kept its majorities in the municipal assemblies. The Council did not explain these decisions, and did not cite the results sheets ("editais') from any of the polling stations.
The PGR did not accept that there was any meaningful distinction between annulling the Council's ruling and suspending it. It could find no legal grounds for accepting the Renamo appeal.
Since the Council has the last word in constitutional disputes, the Renamo claim that the Council's claim had violated the constitution was never going to be accepted.
As for Renamo's complaint against the General Commander of the Mozambican Police (PRM), Bernardino Rafael, seeking to sue him for criminal behavior by the police force, the PGR guarantees that the facts presented by Renamo have been duly analyzed and a letter has been sent to Renamo clarifying the legal procedures. But in its note, the PGR does not explain what procedures should now be followed.
