Renamo Women’s League President in Zumbo, Tete, Babula Jeque and her husband João Fenhane, were shot dead by strangers on the morning of 14 October.
Jeque was riding a motorcycle with her husband in the direction of Muze and Zambue to leave credentials and copies the electoral register with Renamo delegates.
The couple was ambushed in the locality of Ntongue, report our correspondents. This is the tenth murder recorded since the election campaign began. During this period, 47 people died in the country as a result of accidents in connection with the event.
EU observers expelled from Milange count
At least four observers, two local and two from the European Union, were expelled from the room where the district polling results were being tabulated in Milange, Zambezia. The observers had been in the STAE Chief Operating Officer’s office from yesterday morning (17 October) watching the tabulations. But around 6 pm they were forced to leave by STAE District Director Barressone Augusto, who told observers “The law does not allow the count to be done in the presence of observers. I ask you to leave because we want to work!”, our correspondents report. A half hour later, the STAEs director called EU observers and informed them that they could return to the room where the count was taking place.
According to Article 263 (c) of Law No 3/2019 of 31 May, observers are entitled to “observe subsequent electoral processes at all levels, including data collection, centralization and tabulation of electoral results” at district, city, province and central level.
Protests in district counting creates confusion in Maputo
The provincial party agent for New Democracy, (ND) Francisca Noronha, had her phone confiscated and the police person on duty was called, after she protested during the district tabulation of the votes in Kamavota district, Maputo. ND national representative Quitéria Gurengane told the Bulletin that the confusion arose following the district committee’s refusal to provide a complaint form, minutes and results sheets.
They refused to allow the protest to be filmed and refused to receive a protest, ND said. But the case was eventually resolved. Guirengane also reported cases of electoral wrongdoing during the tabulation in the polling stations. “There are a number of cases where the number of votes for a candidate is higher than the number of voters,” she said. “And we have recorded cases where our votes written on the blackboard in the classroom are not in the final results (edital), she added
