Mozambique: All in Order for Repeat Election, Claim Nacala Officials

10 December 2023
Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)

Nacala — The Nacala Port District Elections Commission (CDE) has claimed that everything is ready for the repeat municipal election on Sunday, as ordered by the Constitutional Council, the country's highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law - but the main opposition party, Renamo, has promised to boycott the vote.

The Council determined, in light of the irregularities that occurred during the elections of 11 October, that the election must be re-run in 19 Nacala polling stations, where 12,983 voters are registered.

Last Wednesday morning, unknown assailants set fire to one of the two Nacala schools that will accommodate nine of the polling stations on Sunday.

Despite the fire, the CDE insists that the school has been cleaned up enough for the polling stations to open. "Everything is ready for the voting on Sunday. The material is in place, and the environment is calm', said the CDE chairperson.

But Renamo is refusing to participate in the repeat election, arguing that the election should be repeated in the entire municipality, and not just in 19 polling stations.

The mayor of Nacala, Raul Novinte, who is standing for a further term of office as the Renamo candidate, told reporters there had been "generalized fraud' during the 11 October election.

"We continue to reject this repetition in some polling stations', he said. "The Constitutional Council should have ordered the elections to be repeated in the entire municipality'.

Novinte was questioned by the Nacala district attorney's office on Friday, and faces charges of incitement to violence, arising from the Renamo demonstrations against the election results

"I didn't incite any violence', said Novinte. "I called peaceful marches to repudiate the fraudulent results. When a law does not favour the people, that law is unjust'.

"Faced with this situation, I cannot keep quiet', he continued. "I am the spokesperson of the people, and I am expressing their feelings. These elections were fraudulent'.

The Renamo leadership in Maputo does not agree with the call to boycott the repeat elections. Earlier in the week, Novinte was in Maputo, negotiating with his party's top leadership - apparently to no avail.

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