Maputo — Mozambique's main opposition party, Renamo, has insisted that it won Wednesday's municipal elections in Maputo.
On Friday, Renamo called a press conference to present the results of its parallel count. According to the Renamo mayoral candidate, Venancio Mondlane, the party based its claim of victory on the results sheets ("editais') from 95 per cent of the 889 polling stations in the capital.
The parallel count gave Renamo 186,114 votes (53 per cent of all votes validly cast). The ruling Frelimo Party won 125,967 votes (36 per cent). Trailing in third place was the second opposition party, the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) with 22,140 (six per cent).
The rest of the votes were dispersed among several minor parties, notably New Democracy (ND), with 2,882 votes (one per cent).
Mondlane insisted that Renamo has copies of all the results sheets and polling station minutes. This allowed Renamo to give a breakdown of the results, in each of the Maputo municipal districts.
But so far the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE) has not released any official results from Maputo, implying that the intermediate, or district, count has not yet been completed.
What looked like official results appeared on the public television station, TVM, on Thursday, but STAE insisted it had nothing to do with these results.
The TVM results gave victory to Frelimo with 56.03 per cent of the vote, followed by Renamo with 36.4 per cent, and the MDM with 11 per cent.
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The gap between these results and those announced by Renamo is enormous. The only way to solve the discrepancy is to look at the editais, one by one.
Immediately after the close of polls on Wednesday, the editais should have been posted on the walls of each polling station. In addition, each of the competing parties is entitled to receive a copy of the edital.
By checking the editais held by Renamo against those held by STAE and by Frelimo, it might be possible to reach the truth. Renamo claims that its copies of the editais are duly signed and stamped. They should contain exactly the same figures as those on the other copies of the editais.
It is an easy, if time consuming, matter to photograph all the editais and post them onto a website. This Renamo has not done - although it is the only way to prove its victory.
STAE and the National Elections Commission (CNE) have made no attempt to dissipate doubts about the results. The CNE/STAE website is not kept up-to-date, and contains no results from the municipal elections.
The count is a lengthy and bureaucratic procedure, which can take up to 15 days. Following the count at the polling stations, immediately after the election, the results are tabulated in the districts (the "intermediate count'), and then by the 11 provincial election commissions. Then all the results must be confirmed by the CNE, which then hands them over for validation and proclamation by the Constitutional Council, the country's highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law.
