The Constitutional Council (CC) today issued two rulings on the current local elections. The first makes it clear that it has exclusive competence to annul or order the repetition of elections, and district courts do not have this power. However, such a decision can only be taken after the CNE has finalised the general tabulation of results. Thus, the CNE declared null and void the judgement of the Chókwè district court to cancel the election there, forcing a re-run.

In its ruling on the municipal elections in Chókwè, the CC recognises that the Chókwè District Electoral Commission (CDE) violated the law by not accrediting the delegates of the New Democracy party. The CDE said that there was a conflict of interest because the party had nominated as delegates the same people running for the municipal assembly. The CC says that the law does not prevent candidates for the municipal assembly from also being accredited as delegates. In other words, the CDE's decision "called into question the principle of electoral transparency in the 11 October elections in the city of Chókwè", which the CC considers "illegal".

But the CC annuled the judgement of the Chókwè District Court, because it does not fall within its competence to annul elections. The CC emphasises that the Constitution of Mozambique has given it exclusive competence to "validate the results of elections" and not to the lower courts. Therefore, the final decision on whether or not to annul the results in the city of Chókwè will only be taken in the process of validating the results by the CC. That is the last stage of the process and follows the announcement of the general tabulation of results by the CNE, which must occur on Thursday.

CC rejects Nhlamankulu District Electoral Commission appeal against repetition of election

The CC today published another judgement rejecting the appeal by the chair of the Nhlamankulu CDE, who was asking the CC to overturn the district court order to repeat the election in 64 polling stations. Although the Chókwè ruling suggests the Nhlamankulu order will eventually be dismissed, the CC refused to uphold the CDE chair's appeal on the grounds that the chair had no legal standing because she would not have been harmed by the "execution of the judgement". For the CC, only those who "have been harmed by the delivery or execution of the judgement" have standing to appeal, which the Nhlamankulu CDE "is unable to demonstrate in its legal sphere, as a defender of the public interest of justice, transparency, impartiality and electoral legality".