“Despite the guarantees for the transparency of the electoral process, some say that our electoral processes suffer from problems. After all, where do the problems of our electoral processes lie?” asked the Constitutional Council in its ruling approving the 2019 general elections (Acórdão 25). Are the problems legal, organizational and administrative, or preparations of parties and candidates asks the CC. “Or all these elements of the system taken together? It is therefore essential to reflect on these aspects.”
This section of the Mozambique Political Process Bulletin’s final report is, in part, a response to the CC and a contribution to the debate the CC calls for. The CC puts great stress on the party dominance or what it calls the “party-ization of the organs which supervise the electoral process, from top to bottom” And 14 of the 37 pages of the ruling are devoted to a discussion of transparency and observation. We agree that all three – party-ization, observation and transparency – are central to questions raised about this election.
To those we add the lack of an “audit trail”, registration, ballot-box stuffing and other forms of Frelimo vote inflation, and an electoral administration above the law.
