“The 15 October elections were not free, fair, or transparent because the ruling party captured and assaulted the electoral machine,” concluded eight civil society organisations (CSOs) in a statement last week.
“Of the six multiparty general elections held in Mozambique, these were the most corrupted and fraudulent. For fairness and neutrality in elections, it is essential to rethink an electoral system in which the ruling party appoints key electoral agents who can violate the law with impunity, protected by party and police intimidation. The appointment of a new National Election Commission (CNE) in April next year should be the starting point for change and CSOs will promote a campaign for the creation of an independent and neutral CNE.”
“The election campaign was characterized by a mixture of excessive use of state resources by the Frelimo party and the intimidation of the opposition and civil society. Students and teachers were required to campaign for the ruling party, and vehicles and other state means were used illegally during the process. All of this was accompanied by increasing intimidation – by blocking opposition caravans, as well as recording and even collecting voter cards for unknown purposes.”
The statement was signed by the Centre for Public Integrity (Centro de Integridade Pública, CIP, publishers of this bulletin), the Centre for Democracy Development (Centro Desenvolvimento da Democracia CDD), the Civil Society Training and Learning Centre (Centro de Aprendizagem e Capacitação da Sociedade Civil CESC), the National Community Radio Forum (Forúm Nacional das Radios Comunitárias FORCOM), the Rural Observatory (Observatório do Meio Rural OMR), the Civil Society Support Mechanism (Mecanismo de Apoio à Sociedade Civil MASC), WLSA Mocambique and the electoral observation platform Votar Mocambique.
The statement is on https://www.cipeleicoes.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Declaracao-sobre-processoeleitoral_-CSO_28Oct19.pdf
