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Complex vote-counting creates confusion in Mozambique Rumours abound in the
media and voters are becoming “increasingly nervous about the length of time
it is taking for official results to come from the National Electoral
Commission (CNE),” said one analyst. “It is time for the CNE to stick its
neck out and tell the people what is going on.” Voters, who went to the
polls 3-5 December, are still waiting for the CNE to make official the final
results of presidential and parliamentary voting which it must do by law
before 20 December. Meanwhile, the confusion
has been compounded by published claims from the opposition Renamo-Electoral
Union of victory in both ballots. Frelimo general-secretary Manuel Tome amhas
dismissed the claim as nonsense because “in reality Renamo envisages defeat
and is making these claims to confuse the mass media and the international community.”
Results from 10 of 11
provincial electoral commissions – results from the central province of
Nampula are expected today or tomorrow – indicate that President Joaquim
Chissano is winning and Frelimo will have control of the 250-seat Assembly of
the Nation. By law, only the CNE can
announce the official results of both votes. Frelimo insists that it will not
follow Renamo’s lead and usurp the prerogative of the CNE and release its own
figures publicly. The confusion here is
caused by a number of factors. One observer said there is so little trust in
the system that everything is being done by the book. The electoral law is
complex and the CNE seems unconcerned with the increasing anxiety about the
outcome. Things were made more
confusing when the voting was extended by an extra day due to bad weather in
Nampula. This also delayed the beginning of the count. Polling stations had two
days to count and report to district commissions who passed on these
preliminary counts to the provincial commissions who then had five days to
recount and send their results to the CNE. In the meantime, the CNE was to
check all spoiled and contested ballots while waiting for the provinces to
report. However delays from the
beginning due to weather, a fragile infrastructure in the rural areas and the
presence of polling officials and party representatives in the stations and
provincial commissions has caused many logistical problems. CNE, which has
responsibility for adjudicating contested and spoiled ballots, seems to be
taking an inordinately long time. “There is so little trust
here amongst parties that the electoral law was set up to be fail safe but
there are so many checks and balances that the outcome is open to all sorts
of rumour-mongering by the media and the politicians,” another veteran
observer said. Mozambique has a high
illiteracy rate and many people are unaccustomed to even holding a pencil,
let alone making the cross to indicate their choice of candidate and party.
In the 1994 election about two percent of ballots were spoiled but this time
observers think the number could be higher which will also affect the
outcome. While Renamo is carrying
out a parallel tabulation using results from its representatives in the
provinces, the figures are questionable. “There’s nothing wrong with a
parallel count if those doing it are numerate, competent and impartial.
However the predictions coming out are distorted and lead to the
rumour-mongering that is making the voters tense,” the long-time oberver
said. Another factor that some
analysts are pointing out is the psychological factor. Both parties “really
believed they were going to do much better than the other. Now, when it
begins to look close, there are all sorts of dire predictions of fraud,
ballot box-stuffing and people are worried that Renamo, especially, might
boycott the results,” an Eduardo Mondlane University social scientist said. Both parties said during
the campaign that they would honour the results of the election but, said
Tome, “Renamo, with its lack of a culture of legality, and its outlaw
traditions, cannot be allowed to be both referee and player at the same time.
They cannot give out figures which are incorrect.” In fact, unconfirmed
reports indicated that the delays by CNE to release the results of Nampula
are linked to incidents whereas the number of votes in some ballot boxes in
the province did not tally with the number of registered voters. Results from 10 out of the
11 provincial constituencies and with 4.1 million votes counted Chissano is
leading with 52.35 per cent while Dhlakama is trailing with 47.65 per cent. The results show that
Frelimo will secure a working majority of 8 to10 seats in parliament.
Available results show that Frelimo has so far won 49.04 per cent of the
votes while Renamo is trailing it with 38.71 per cent. The remaining votes
were spread among the small parties which seem to have failed to garner
enough support to secure a single seat in parliament. The opposition coalition caused two major upsets by increasing the number of seats in the psychologically important capital city of Maputo and winning an overall majority in Niassa province for the first time. Like its neighbouring province of Cabo Delgado, Niassa is widely regarded as Frelimo heartland. (SARDC) |
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[Elections '99 || Sustainable Democracy || SARDC] Mail Editorial for comments and queries. |
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