Maputo — The Mozambican election observation consortium "Mais Integridade' ("More Integrity') declared on Wednesday that the gross irregularities that occurred during the repeat municipal elections last Sunday in the town of Marromeu "do not allow any institution to declare, with any credibility and certainty, who won'.
According to a "Mais Integridade' statement, the irregularities included interruptions in the counting of votes in many polling stations, so that the station chairpersons could consult among themselves and with representatives of the Frelimo Party before concluding the process and filling out the results sheets ("editais'); the departure of the chairpersons from several polling stations with the editais, but before posting them on the station walls; the excessive number of invalid votes, which is greater than the difference between the two most voted parties, and other abuses, which call into question the integrity, transparency and credibility of the election'.
Hence the "Mais Integridade' consortium concluded that it is now up to the relevant bodies, namely the National Elections Commission (CNE) and the Constitutional Council "to take the necessary corrective measures'.
The consortium noted that, of the 41 polling stations, its observers managed to obtain the results from 39. In the other two stations, it was not possible to obtain any results because the polling station chairpersons "expelled the observers from the room, precisely when they were about to start the count. By 03.00 on Monday morning, the editais had still not been posted, although the count had finished many hours earlier'.
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The observers were duly accredited, so their expulsion from the polling stations was blatantly illegal.
The situation seems to have been just as bad in Gurue, where the repeat election was held in 13 polling stations.
"Mais Integridade' reports: "During the count, it was noted that in three polling stations located in the Nacuecuè Complete Primary School, Frelimo obtained between 74 and 78.5 per cent, much higher than its average. Also in the polling station where Frelimo obtained the 78.5 per cent mentioned above, there was an excessively high number of invalid votes - 41, which, according to the observers, were ballot papers that had mostly been marked for the New Democracy (ND) party'.
A depressingly common type of fraud has been to add an ink mark to a ballot paper, making it look as if the voter has tried to vote for more than one candidate. The vote is then regarded as invalid.
Both the CNE and the Constitutional Council have noted this type of fraud in previous elections, but it continues since nobody has ever been jailed for it.
