MAPUTO-Filipe Nyusi was reelected by the populace who gifted their ink crosses on October 15. President Nyusi won with 73% of the vote and his Frelimo party will have 74% of seats in parliament according to official results announced on Sunday, October 27 as reported by AP.
Also, Frelimo tweeted about CNE announcing its official results confirming overwhelming Frelimo’s landslide victory:
FRELIMO https://t.co/uRxkV7FMyY
— FRELIMO Moçambique (@FRELIMO_) October 28, 2019
The main opposition party, Renamo on Saturday called for this week’s election to be annulled, accusing the government of breaching a peace deal by using violence and intimidation on voting day.
With his zealous and fervent crowds during the campaign, Renamo candidate Ossufo Momade took 22% of the vote, according to Mozambique’s electoral commission, which reported an overall voter turnout of 51%.
Renamo accused Frelimo of violating a “cessation of hostilities agreement” under the August peace deal which states no party should “commit acts of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political objectives” according to Al Jazeera.
“There were arbitrary arrests of agents … and voters who tried to complain about anything, ballot box stuffing, being unable to exercise the right to vote,” Renamo said in a statement.
It called for a cancellation of the vote and asked for “new elections that must be supervised by reputable entities”.
Renamo failed to win a single province in a vote where provincial governors were directly elected for the first time.
Frelimo will continue to govern all 10 provinces which elected provincial assemblies. One province, Maputo city, did not elect a provincial assembly to avoid duplicating the municipal government, which is also run by Frelimo.
In the 250-seat National Assembly, Frelimo won 184 seats, Renamo 60 seats and the MDM party got six seats.
Renamo failed to win a single province in a vote where provincial governors were directly elected for the first time.
The result leaves Frelimo “stronger than ever,” said businessman and activist Erik Charas, who founded the independent newspaper A Verdade.
“A third term is possible,” despite the constitution limiting the president to two terms, Charas said. A two-thirds majority in parliament would allow Frelimo to change the constitution without needing the agreement of the opposition.
Tudo pronto para anúncio da victoria qualquerizadora e retumbante da Frelimo @NFrelimo @FRELIMO_ pic.twitter.com/wI6b5Gg2sk
— Pene Iglesio Tsaninga (@pene_iglesio) October 27, 2019
The election was seen as a test of the fragile peace deal between Frelimo and Renamo, a former rebel group.
According to AP an observer mission sent by the European Union said the elections were conducted in a “climate of fear,” which was made worse when a leading Mozambican observer was killed in Gaza province a week before the poll and police were arrested for the killing. A top Renamo official and her husband were shot dead by unknown gunmen in Tete province a day before the vote.
The two sides fought a vicious civil war from 1975-1992, shattering and crippling the economy to its knees. The civil war also left almost one million people dead.
The two parties also fought from 2013 to 2016, although tensions continued until the peace deal was sealed.
As part of the peace accord, Frelimo had also agreed to allow voters to elect governors for the country’s 10 provinces.
Observers noted several incidents across the country where people were found trying to enter polling stations with extra ballots marked for Frelimo.
On Friday, the US Embassy expressed “significant concerns regarding problems and irregularities” during the voting and counting which “raise questions about the integrity of these procedures and their vulnerability to possible fraudulent acts.”
The United States Embassy said its observers “witnessed a number of irregularities and vulnerabilities during the voting and the first stages of the tabulation process.”
Some results in Gaza province, where the election authorities registered 300,000 more voters than a recent census said lived in the province, “strained credulity,” according to the U.S. statement.
Frelimo, which has ruled the southern African nation since independence from Portugal in 1975 widely won the presidential, parliamentary and provincial plebiscites.
