Mozambique starts destroying election material

Image- Zitamar News

The National Election Commission (NEC) of Mozambique will today start destroying all voting materials.

NEC resolution schedules for 17 January as the destruction day of the ballot papers from Mozambique’s elections.

This step is legally required once the electoral process has been completed.

However, on 8 January, -CIP- Center for Integrity Public filed an appeal with the Administrative Court to halt the destruction of this material.

CIP, a Mozambican non-governmental organisation, announced on Wednesday that it had submitted an appeal to the Administrative Court to prevent the destruction of the ballot papers for the general elections on 9 October.

“On 8 January 2024, the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP) submitted an appeal to the Administrative Court to suspend the effectiveness of the administrative act of the Resolution of the National Electoral Commission (CNE) that determines the destruction of voting material,” according to an article from CIP, released today.

For the Centre for Public Integrity, destroying the ballot papers “eliminates any possibility of an audit or criminal investigation to verify the authenticity of the notices and minutes used to alter the results”.

“CIP finds no plausible justification for the CNE rushing to destroy material that is still being contested,” it said.

The NGO argues that with the alteration of the Constitutional Council (CC) mandates, “it has been proven that documents were tampered with”.

“The alteration of the results, made secretly and based on the notices and tabulation minutes provided by the CNE and the competing political parties, without the ballot boxes being opened, is neither convincing nor credible,” it reiterated.

For the NGO, the voting material could be useful for reconstructing the electoral process and the responsibility of those possibly involved.

“If the African Court on Human and Peoples” Rights were to intervene (…), the voting material in question could be useful for reconstructing the history of the past electoral process, including for situations of administrative, civil and criminal liability of those involved,” concluded CIP.

On 23 December, Chapo, 48, was proclaimed by the Constitutional Council as the winner of the election for speaker of parliament, with 65.17% of the votes, in the general elections of 09 October, which included legislative elections and elections for provincial assemblies, which Frelimo also won.

Daniel Chapo’s election has been contested in the streets since October, with pro-Venâncio Mondlane demonstrators – who according to the Constitutional Council only obtained 24% of the votes but who claim victory – demanding the “restoration of electoral truth”, with barricades, looting and clashes with the police, which have already left 300 people dead and more than 600 injured by gunfire, according to civil society organisations monitoring the process.

Venâncio Mondlane has called for three days of stoppages and demonstrations since Monday, contesting the swearing in of the elected MPs and the investiture of the new president.