Journalists and observers have been barred from attending some counts of the results at district level in Inhambane, Gaza, Niassa and Nampula.

This law states “Observers and the mass media may attend the count of results and shall be notified in writing or by notices, in terms of the law”. But the National Elections Commission (CNE) on 20 September reversed this, making the district count secret. The CNE defines a new category called "physical operations" (operações materiais), which is the entire process of physically checking and adding up the polling station results sheets (editais) to obtain the district total, and even writing the final district results sheet (edital). This is carried out by STAE (Secretariado Técnico da Administração Eleitoral, Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration). This is the actual work of doing the district count, and will be done in secret.

The response to this has been mixed at district level.

In Inhambane province, our observers were prevented from observing the count in Inhambane city, Massinga and in other districts. In Inharrime, the process was interrupted for more than an hour, with staff saying they were waiting for “higher orders” before proceeding. This also happened when deciding what to do about invalid and disputed ballots.

In Gaza observers were banned in Manjacaze, Chókwè and other districts. In Manjacaze they alleged that the activity under way was “centralisation” and not the count.

In several districts in Niassa, journalists and observers were prevented from observing the count of the district results.

In Mecuburi, Nampula, the process took place in complete secrecy so that none of the observers knew where the count was taking place. When they managed to locate the place, the observers were prevented from entering the room.