Mozambican NGO concerned about violence during re-voting in Nacala Porto

The Mozambican NGO CIP said this Wednesday that there are “clear signs” of the violence that occurred on Sunday during the repeat of the municipal elections in Nacala Porto, given the “clear gap” between the Renamo leadership and the bases in that municipality.

“EPK [Escola Primária e Completa] Murupelane in Nacala Porto, where some polling stations will repeat the election, was set on fire by unknown assailants early this Wednesday morning. The information was confirmed by local residents and the Murupelane district secretary,” said the Center for Public Integrity (CIP), which monitored the sixth local elections on October 11 and the counting process across the country.

“There are strong indications that extreme violence may occur in Nacala Porto,” the non-governmental organization (NGO) said in a bulletin on the electoral process released today.

He adds that “there is a clear divide between the leadership” of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo, the largest opposition party) in Maputo “with its bases in Nacala Porto,” a city in Nampula province.

Renamo in Nacala Porto has already decided that there will be no elections and is asking neighbors of the school where the vote will be repeated to leave on the 10th. This decision contradicts the instructions of Renamo at the central level,” CIP notes.

At the local level, party leaders understand that repeating the vote in this assembly will legitimize the remaining electoral process in the municipality, which is highly controversial.

Faced with the situation in Nacala Porto, Mozambican National Electoral Commission (CNE) spokesman Paulo Quinica assured that “the elections will take place” at that polling station this Sunday.

“It was just a room that was sabotaged, tires were burned there. Voting may take place in the same room on the 10th,” Quinica said, speaking to reporters, guaranteeing: “Burning the room is sabotage.”

On 24 November, the Constitutional Council of Mozambique declared the Mozambican Liberation Front (Frelimo) the winner of the 11 October municipal elections in 56 municipalities against the 64 previously declared by the CNE, with Renamo winning four, and ordered the elections to be repeated in four more countries.

By the same decree, this body decided “not to recognize the validity of the elections due to the invalidity of all the votes held in the municipality of Marromeu, province of Sofala, and also “not to recognize the elections as valid and to order the voting to be repeated.” “In two polling stations in Nacala Porto with a total of 12,893 voters, in three assemblies in Milange with a total of 2,397 voters and in four assemblies in Gurue with 5,747 voters.

Voting will take place throughout the day on Sunday, December 10, in accordance with the call approved by the Council of Ministers.

In total, the CNE plans to recruit 525 constituency members, 300 of whom will be selected after a public competition and the remaining 225 will be nominated by political parties.

According to the CNE, the re-election will cost 41 million metics (595 thousand euros), will be held in 75 polling stations, of which 18 in Nacala Porto (province of Nampula), three in Milange and 13 in Gurue (Zambezia) and in all 41 tables in Marromeu (Sofala).

Mozambique’s sixth local elections continue to be heavily criticized by various opposition parties and civil society, who have denounced “mega-rigging” of ballots, with particular emphasis on notification fraud, with some district court decisions acknowledging irregularities in the process. .

The main opposition party has organized marches to challenge the October 11 election results, uniting thousands of people in different parts of the country to demand the “restoration of electoral truth,” and has already filed several criminal cases, particularly against Council judges. Constitutional and agents of the electoral process.