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Anxiety over election results heightens in Mozambique The minister's statement
comes in the wake of persistent rumours that the Renamo-Electoral Union
opposition supporters could resort to violence if, as widely expected,
President Joaquim Chissano and the ruling Frelimo Party, win the presidential
and parliamentary elections held two weeks ago. Mozambicans went to the
polls two weeks ago 3-5 December to elect a new president and new deputies
for the 250-seat Assembly of the Republic. It is estimated that 75 percent of
the 7.1 million registered voters turned out to cast their ballots. Under
Mozambique's electoral law the National Electoral Commision (CNE) must
announce the results before midnight tonight. A few days after the
elections Rahil Khan, a prominent Renamo leader said in an interview that he
feared that their members could resort to violence should Frelimo and
Chissano win. Initially CNE said the
results would be announced Sunday. That was subsequently changed to Monday
morning. Now all indications are that the results will be announced this
evening. Renamo has been waging
what appears to be a psychological disinformation, aimed either at minimising
its defeat by attributing it to electoral fraud or discrediting the process
altogether in case it loses the elections. Before the preliminary
election results were announced by the CNE, Renamo had been publishing its
own partial results showing that the opposition coalition had won a majority
in six of Mozambique's 11 provinces. However, Mozambique's
proportional representation system means that the margin between the two
contenders counts a great deal in the computation of the final results. By Renamo's own count the
results showed clearly that the opposition coalition was heading for defeat. Two
factors seem to have contributed to Frelimo's apparent victory in the
legislative elections. The first was Frelimo's
massive victory in southern Mozambique and in Cabo Delgado province in the
north. The second was Frelimo's recovery in central Sofala province and in
the northern province of Nampula which is the country's biggest constituency
with a total of 50 seats. The allocation of seats to each constituency is
based on the number of registered voters. Renamo leaders have been
holding a string of press conferences ever since the vote counting began.
Shortly after the announcement of the results, Renamo's second in command,
Raul Domingos, called a press conference to announce that his party would not
accept the results if Frelimo and Chissano are declared the winners.
"What system is this where even if you win in six of the 11
constitutencies you still lose an election?" he said. Domingos repeated the same
accusations yet at another press conference on Saturday. He said that Renamo
had received information that CNE, under the instructions from Frelimo, were
preparing to declare the ruling party and Chissano as the winners. He alleged that due to
massive fraud perpetrated by Frelimo, CNE should declare the elections null
and void and call fresh elections "supervised by the international
community" early next year. Monday morning Domingos
called yet another press conference and this time announced that whatever the
outcome of the elections the opposition would reject the results. He accused Frelimo of
mounting a campaign of intimidation by placing heavily armed units in major
towns including Maputo. However, Maputo does not show any extra presence of
armed policemen. The only unusual aspects is that the few policemen in
patrolling the streets seem to have substituted their pistols for AK-47s. Sources from within the
international donors told SARDC that it was odd that Renamo was claiming
fraud when most of the incidents of what he termed "low level
fraud" in the northern provinces were committed by Renamo members. One
sources said he also found it strange that Renamo could call for elections
supervised by the International community when it is known that several
foreign observer missions monitored the process and declared the elections
free and fair and a number still remain in the country. The vote counting has been
marred by technical problems and irregularities which brought a climate of
anxiety to the country as the voters anxiously await the announcement of the
results. The preliminary results
showed that Chissano and Frelimo were ahead with 52.22 percent and 48.88
percent respectively. Opposition candidate Afonso Dhlakama and the opposition
coalition Renamo - Electoral Union were trailing behind with 47.78 percent
and 38.55 percent respectively. Then, there were still
between 450,000 and 700,000 spoilt and contested votes which were to be
processed. Given the small margin separating the two contenders, particularly
in the presidential elections where by the last count the Dhlakama was
trailing Chissano by only 200,000 votes, Renamo believes that, with luck,
they could theoretically clinch victory in the presidential elections.
However, analysts in Maputo maintain that although the margins could narrow slightly,
the chances of Dhlakama turning the tables on Chissano are remote. Dhlakama has kept an unusually low profile throughout the bickering. Some link his silence either to the fact that he believes that he still has a real chance of winning or that he wants to appear as the saviour of democracy should the opposition decide to boycott parliament after the announcement of the results. (SARDC) |
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[Elections '99 || Sustainable Democracy || SARDC] Mail Editorial for comments and queries. |
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