Constitutional Council Criticises CNE

Maputo — Mozambique's Constitutional Council on Monday sharply criticised the National Elections Commission (CNE) for the way it had handled the procedures leading up to the 28 October general and provincial elections.

In its ruling proclaiming the election results, the Council pointed out that the calendar for the elections drawn up by the CNE "does not indicate with precision and clarity the deadlines for electoral acts, particularly those for the phase of delivering candidates' nomination papers".

In particular, the CNE announced exactly the same period (1 June to 29 July) for both the registration of parties for the parliamentary elections and for the delivery of candidates' nomination papers.

This procedure was in violation of the law, which regards the registration of parties, and the delivery of nomination papers as quite separate.

The law envisages the possibility of appealing to the Constitutional Council against the CNE's decisions on such matters as the legality of political parties' names and symbols. Yet the CNE effectively made this impossible, since the calendar said that the CNE would decide on the legality of names and symbols only after the end of the period for delivery of nomination papers.

This was not an academic issue. There were strong suspicions that one new party, the PLD (Party of Freedom and Development), chose a turkey as its symbol to confuse the electorate, since the main extra-parliamentary force, the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) also has a domestic bird, a cockerel, as its symbol.

The most flagrant case was that of the PPD (Popular Democratic Party), a completely obscure group, which obviously chose its name in order to steal votes from the much better known PDD (Party of Peace, Democracy and Development), led by the former number two in Renamo, Raul Domingos.

But the CNE's calendar, described by the Council as "incoherent", made it almost impossible to address such issues.

The CNE also had a legal obligation to publish lists of candidates on three separate occasions - first, immediately after the end of the period for presenting nomination papers (29 July); second, after all the nomination papers had been checked for irregularities (5 September); and finally, after any appeals by parties against the lists had been decided by the Constitutional Council (19 September).

In fact, the CNE only posted one set of lists of candidates on its notice board, on the night of 5/6 September. Even this was incomplete, since it only included the lists that were accepted, and not those that the CNE rejected, although the law states clearly that the rejected lists must also be posted.

The Council pointed out that failure to publish the list of candidates immediately after receiving their nomination papers meant that the parties could not check the lists for any omissions. The parties were thus being denied information they needed for any possible appeal against the CNE to the Council.

The Council also noted that three elections were held, not one. The CNE should therefore have submitted three separate sets of minutes to the Council. Instead, the CNE's decisions on the three elections were bundled together in one document. When the Council asked for separate minutes for the separate elections, all it received were two additional photocopies of the same document.

The electoral bodies, the Council added, needed to explain their decisions better, and always notify parties and candidates of those decisions. It would thus be desirable for the CNE and its subordinate bodies "to develop complementary practical mechanisms which, on the one hand, permit greater publicity for its activities, and on the other improve communication and dialogue with the political parties and candidates".

Such measures were important "to raise the level of trust and credibility that the electoral administration should deserve".

But the Council admitted that the CNE was working with badly drafted laws with overlapping deadlines that were difficult to reconcile with each other. A key problem was that the date for the election must be announced by the President of the Republic (on the CNE's advice) at least 180 days in advance.

The Council said this was not enough time - particularly because updating the voter registration cannot occur until the election date is known (because only people aged 18 before or on the date of the election can vote).

The date for the elections should be fixed further in advance, the Council argued, "so as to allow more time for all the other electoral procedures".

A correct timetable for the elections, it said, "requires parliament to fix more realistic deadlines, which allow a properly phased and harmonised sequence of electoral acts, without overlapping".

The Council also criticized the CNE for demanding residence certificates proving that candidates for the provincial assemblies have lived in the province for at least six months. That demand is not in the law, which only requires that candidates show their identity card and their voter card.

For the voter card number indicates the province where the candidate registered to vote, and where he or she presumably lives. The identity card also shows the candidate's address. A third document is therefore unnecessary.

Opposition parties have repeatedly claimed that local authorities are unwilling to issue residence certificates for their candidates. The failure of opposition candidates to obtain these certificates is the main reason why the ruling Frelimo Party was unopposed in 67 of the 141 district constituencies used for the provincial elections.

Source: Allafrica (2009.12.28)

In Changara, the Dead Vote Again

By Paul Fauvet

As the Constitutional Council considers the results of the 28 October general elections, and the appeal against them by the former rebel movement Renamo, one of the issues it will have to consider is the curious case of polling stations that declared a turnout of 95 per cent, 100 percent or more.

The national turnout was poor, at 44 per cent of the registered electorate. But there were districts that declared a turnout that was over twice as large. Changara, in the western province of Tete, claimed 95 per cent, and Chicualacuala, in Gaza province in the south, claimed 96 per cent.

And within those districts - and several others in Tete and Gaza - there were the stations where everybody voted. Or more than everybody. Take polling station 050304 in Changara. Its register book contained 456 names - yet, according to its results sheet ("edital"), there were 468 votes in the ballot box, and all 468 of them were for the same candidate, incumbent President Armando Guebuza.

Now it is theoretically possible to record a turnout of over 100 per cent, because a few people (such as polling station staff and policemen guarding the stations) were allowed to vote wherever they were working rather than at the polling station where they were registered. So if everyone on the register voted, plus the staff and the police, then in theory turnout could go over 100 per cent.

But when we say "theoretically possible", this is possibility in the sense that it is possible for the same person to win the lottery a dozen times in a row, or to pick up a hand at bridge containing 13 cards in the same suit. Possible, but scarcely worth serious consideration.

There is also an unfortunate fact of human biology to consider. People, including voters, die. The Mozambican electorate was re-registered from scratch between September 2007 and March 2008. There were then two updates of the register, in mid-2008 and mid-2009, bringing the registered electorate to its current figure of 9.8 million.

Anyone who wants us to believe the results from Changara or Chicualacuala is suggesting, not only that the voters in these districts are much more interested in politics than the electorate in Maputo or Beira, but that virtually no voters died there between September 2007 and October 2009.

Also stations with 100 per cent turnout imply that nobody in that area was too sick to vote on 28 October, and nobody had left the district - even though Chicualacuala, like the rest of Gaza province, is an area of labour migration.

The National Elections Commission (CNE) did take some action against the phoney editais from Tete. A comparison between the results announced by the Tete Provincial Elections Commission and the final results announced by the CNE shows that 85,693 votes have disappeared.

The CNE threw out a sixth of all Tete votes (which is well over 100 polling stations), and this brought the claimed turnout in Tete down from 66 to 55 per cent.

Announcing the results on 11 November, CNE chairperson Joao Leopoldo da Costa did not so much as mention this major change. It was clearly the correct thing for the CNE to do - major malpractice had happened in Tete, and the CNE tried to clean some of it up. For which it should have received a round of applause - but only people who looked at the figures carefully would ever know that the change had taken place.

This is the third election in a row where the Changara results have been inflated. The only clean election in Changara was the first one, in 1994, which showed that, while Changara is certainly a Frelimo stronghold, Renamo had the support of around a quarter of the electorate.

We are now expected to believe that this 25 per cent of the voters has disappeared or converted to Frelimo. This time, in polling station after polling station in Changara the phoney editais gave Renamo leader and presidential candidate Afonso Dhlakama no votes at all. The more generous would give him one or two and, very occasionally, his tally would go into double figures.

There were 122 polling stations in Changara. In a trawl through the STAE (Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat) data base, AIM could find just 71 Changara editais - which suggests that, in its purge of the Tete results, the CNE threw out the other 51.

Perhaps the CNE scrapped the most egregiously absurd Changara editais - but the purge could have gone much further, for most of those which remain are not credible either. Take station 050311, where the edital claimed that 973 of the 999 people on the register voted (a 97.4 per cent turnout). All 973 votes were for Guebuza. Supposedly nobody voted for Dhlakama, or for the third candidate, Daviz Simango, and nobody cast a blank or invalid ballot.

The next station, 050310, seems more credible at first, because the turnout is under 50 per cent - 466 votes and 939 names on the register. But the edital claims that all 466 votes were cast for Guebuza. Nothing for the opposition, no blank votes, and no spoiled ballots.

At the Changara locality of Nhalicune, at station 050317, 993 people out of a register of 1,000 (99.3 per cent turnout) supposedly voted. This time only 989 voted for Guebuza. The other four were invalid ballots.

At Birira, polling station 050327 recorded 446 votes out of an electorate of 464 (96.1 per cent turnout). Guebuza had 440 votes and the other six were invalid. At station 050335, there were 194 names on the register, but 200 votes in the ballot box (turnout of 103 per cent). 198 of the votes were for Guebuza and the other two were invalid.

At station 050362 there was a turnout of 102 per cent - 217 names on the register and 221 votes in the box. 220 of the votes were for Guebuza and one was invalid

At Wiriamu (the site of a notorious massacre by the Portuguese army during the colonial war) 949 people out of a list of 993 (95.6 per cent turnout) at station 050320 supposedly voted. This edital gave Guebuza 900 votes, allowed Dhlakama and Simango nine each, and claimed there were seven blank ballots and 24 invalid votes.

Many more examples of such editais from Changara could be given, but would only tire our readers.

The problem spreads to other districts as well. Thus in Magoe, polling station 050517 claimed that 989 of its register of 1,000 had voted (98.9 per cent turnout). There were 969 votes for Guebuza, two for Simango, one for Dhlakama and 17 invalid votes.

In Macanga district, at station 050486, 994 out of 997 names on the register had supposedly voted, 926 of them for Guebuza, three for Simango, one for Dhlakama, with four blank votes and 60 invalid votes.

But, unlike Changara, the other districts also have some credible results. In Macanga, station 050485 had a turnout of 54 per cent (443 out of an electorate of 816). Guebuza won 324 votes, Dhlakama 62 and Simango 24. There were 28 blank votes and five invalid votes.

Or take station 050506, where 311 out of 625 people voted (49.7 per cent turnout), 214 of them for Guebuza, 44 for Dhlakama, and 15 for Simango, with 23 blank ballots and 15 invalid ones. These results make sense: the opposition picked up 22 per cent of the valid votes, which seems reasonable in a Frelimo stronghold.

Occasionally, the fraudsters got careless. For example, in station 050522 in Magoe, the parliamentary edital claimed that Frelimo won 281 votes, no other party won any cotes, and there were two invalid ballots. But the presidential edital gave 271 votes, not to Guebuza, but to Simango ! (and claimed the other 12 votes cast were all invalid).

This is simply explained - Frelimo was top of the parliamentary ballot paper, but Simango was top of the presidential one. The dishonest staff who wrote this edital carelessly gave the votes they had intended for Guebuza to Simango instead.

In other parts of Tete, the editais are not corrupted. Tete city seems clean, for example, and so do the districts of Angonia and Mutarara on the border with Malawi. Renamo, which dominated this district in the 1990s, must be bitterly disappointed with the Angonia results, but in most cases that AIM has seen there is nothing obviously fraudulent about them.

For example, in station 050165 in Angonia 445 out of 994 registered voters cast their ballots (44.8 per cent turnout). 278 voted for Guebuza, 44 for Dhlakama and 102 for Simango. Such figures are quite normal for an election won overwhelmingly by Frelimo, and are in stark contrast with the ridiculous figures from Changara.

But what should be done about polling stations where the dead rise from their graves and vote? One person who had no doubt about this was a former member of the Constitutional Council, Teodato Hunguana. In an article published in 2006, in a collection of essays on the 2004 elections, Hunguana described such corrupted results as "absolutely null".

In polling stations where the dead vote, he remarked, "nothing guarantees that the votes of the living are not of the same nature as the votes of the dead".

Hunguana argued that in the case of something that was "absolutely null and void", the correct procedure was to cancel the elections in those polling stations and hold them again.

It remains to be seen whether anyone will act on this advice.

Source: Allafrica

Observers Criticise CNE

Maputo — Mozambique's National Elections Commission (CNE) has done "little or nothing" to investigate the malpractice that occurred during the 28 October general elections, accuses the Electoral Observatory (OE), the largest and most credible group of Mozambican election observers.

The Observatory is a coalition of the three main religious organisations in the country (the Catholic Church, the Christian Council of Mozambique and the Islamic Council) and several NGOs, including the Human Rights League (LDH), and the Mozambican Association for the Development of Democracy (AMODE).

On the day of the elections, the OE had 1,662 observers on the ground. 998 of them stayed at the same polling station throughout the day, 664 were mobile, and there were 100 district supervisors. This coverage of the election was far greater than any other organisation, and it allowed the OE to undertake an extremely accurate parallel count.

A detailed report issued by the OE is highly critical of the CNE for failing to deal with serious irregularities, including incidents of ballot box stuffing and the deliberate invalidation of votes cast for opposition candidates.

The report says that although this malpractice did not change the results, the country's judicial system should take action against "all the authors of electoral irregularities that have assaulted the transparency that should characterize the entire electoral process".

The OE points to the impossibly high turnout reported in parts of Tete province, notably in the districts of Changara, Chifunde, Tsangano and Zumbo. Its observers found cases of polling stations where 100 per cent or more than 100 per cent of the registered voters allegedly cast votes - in an election where the average national turnout was just 44 per cent.

Thus at polling station 0415 in Chifunde, there were 999 names on the register, but a conveniently round 1,000 ballot papers were found in the ballot box. At polling station 0392 in Changara, there were only 195 names on the register - but 201 people (104 per cent) allegedly voted.

In Tsangano, at polling station 4253, there were 547 people registered. The results sheet, the OE found, claimed that all 547 had cast ballots. In Zumbo, at polling station 0910, there were 198 names on the register, and 199 votes in the ballot box.

The OE notes that the population is mobile and that between the start of registration in September 2007 and the election date, inevitably some voters have died.

Yet, if we are to believe the Tete figures, in these districts nobody dies and nobody moves away. This is not a matter of just a few rogue polling stations. AIM went to the trouble of checking, in the electoral data base, every one of the 71 Changara results sheets that the CNE accepted. Not one of them is credible.

For limitations of space and time, the OE report only mentioned Tete, but an OE official told AIM he was well aware that the same thing had happened in several other districts, notably in Gaza province, and would be included in the OE's final report.

The report notes that a "very large" number of votes were invalidated, "with indications that this was intentional, with the intention of damaging particular candidates. Everything indicates that this was done by people well placed in supervising the ballot boxes".

This is one crime which the CNE has publicly admitted. When announcing the results on 11 November, CNE chairperson Joao Leopoldo da Costa mentioned the way in which valid votes suddenly became invalid when an ink mark was added to them to make it look as if the voters concerned had tried to vote for two candidates.

The OE confirmed complaints by opposition parties that returning officers at the polling stations had refused to accept protests from political party monitors (although they were warned, in the polling station manual itself, that failure to take written note of monitors' protests is a criminal offence).

Arrogance by polling station staff extended to observers. The OE report notes that one of its observers was expelled from a polling station at Massanga, in Changara district.

Yet despite the reports of irregularities from many sources, the CNE showed little interest in investigating. "It would be useful to clarify insufficiencies or irregularities in good time, so that acceptance of the fairness of electoral results ceases to be a problem", the Observatory pointed out.

The report says that while the behaviour of the police during the election campaign was mostly positive, there were cases where the police displayed a double standard, arresting members of opposition parties caught committing crimes, but treating members of Frelimo leniently.

Thus in Muanza district, Sofala province, on 7 October, two supporters of the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) beat up a Frelimo supporter who objected to them sticking an MDM poster on a lamppost in front of his yard. The assailants were promptly detained and thrown into prison for a week.

But in Chibuto, in Gaza province, on 24 September, when Frelimo supporters attacked MDM sympathizers, and broke the windows and slashed the tyres of their vehicles, there were no arrests. The OE said the police merely allowed the MDM supporters to seek refuge in the district police command.

There were also cases of the police hindering observation. At polling station 0697, in Machaze district, Manica province, an OE observer was beaten and expelled by the police.

The OE also deplored the way in which the CNE had interpreted the electoral legislation so as to exclude parties, in whole or in part, from the elections. The most serious problem was with the MDM, whose lists of parliamentary candidates were rejected in nine of the 13 constituencies.

The OE said the CNE's behaviour "damaged instead of favouring citizens", suggesting that, in cases of ambiguous legislation, the parties should have been given the benefit of the doubt.

In future, the report advised, the CNE "should prioritise dialogue and transparency in the administration of the elections".

The OE criticized the parties themselves for failing to organise their documents properly - which means that they were "powerless to react against the decisions to reject or exclude them taken by the CNE".

The OE's parallel count, from 998 polling stations, proved a valuable check on the official results. There was no significant distortion of the figures between the polling stations and the CNE, since the results as announced by Costa were very close to the OE's count.

The OE put the vote for incumbent president Armando Guebuza at 74.59 per cent. The final result announced by the CNE was 75 per cent. The OE gave Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama 17.01 per cent, and MDM leader Davis Simango 8.4 per cent. The CNE's figures were 16.41 and 8.59 per cent respectively.

Source: Allafrica

Elections - EU Observers Saw 'Numerous Irregularities'

European Union election observers noted "numerous irregularities" during the count at polling stations during Mozambique's general and provincial elections of 28 October - but the EU mission estimates that this malpractice did not significantly affect the results.

A statement issued by the EU Election Observation Mission on Wednesday says that in polling stations across the country returning officers refused to accept complaints from monitors of the political parties.

The returning officers who behaved in this way were guilty of a criminal offence. The polling station manual, which all polling station staff received, lists a number of electoral crimes, including "refusing to receive claims, protests or counter-protests from political party delegates".

The EU mission's brief statement does not list the polling stations where its observers saw this behaviour - but if it provides the National Elections Commission (CNE) and the Constitutional Council with such information, that should make prosecutions possible.

EU observers also received copies of six complaints from political parties referring to the voting and the count in Lichinga (Niassa province), Chimoio (Manica), Quelimane (Zambezia), Mutarara and Angonia (both in Tete).

These complaints were officially received by the polling station staff. Yet when CNE chairperson Joao Leopolda da Costa announced the results on 11 November, he said that the CNE had not received any complaints. So it seems as if the returning officers in the six cases mentioned by the EU simply failed to pass on the complaints to their superiors.

The EU observers also saw polling station staff illegally ban political party representatives from attending the count in four Tete districts (Maravia, Angonia, Changara and Tsangano) and in parts of Manica and Cabo Delgado provinces.

Despite the CNE's promises of transparency, EU observers themselves were barred from the district count in several districts, and from the provincial count in Tete, Niassa, Cabo Delgado and Nampula. In other words, there was no standard procedure - in seven provinces the observers could watch the count, and in four they could not.

The EU observers also noted the statistical impossibility achieved in dozens of polling stations where staff claimed that every single registered voter had voted. In an election where average turnout was 44 per cent, the EU mission came across turnouts of 100 per cent (or more than 100 per cent) in 40 polling stations in Gaza province, 61 in Tete, and two on Mozambique Island (in Nampula).

Anyone who takes results sheets with 100 per cent turnout seriously is claiming that in these parts of the country no voters died since registration began in September 2007, nobody was kept at home by illness on 28 October, and nobody moved out of the districts concerned.

On Mozambique Island, the EU mission, notes, there were signs of ballot box stuffing, as shown by "discrepancies between the number of ballot papers for each of the three elections" (presidential, parliamentary and provincial), and "discrepancies between the results announced after the count and the results that were publicly posted outside the polling station".

Furthermore there were a large number of invalid votes which bore signs of having been deliberately invalidated. This is the only type of fraud which Costa publicly recognised when he announced the results.

He admitted that ink marks had been added to ballot papers to make it looks as if voters had tried to vote for two candidates. The CNE has promised to notify the Attorney-General's Office of this.

All polling station staff were warned against vote tampering during their training, and the polling station manual states that "distorting, replacing, suppressing, stealing, destroying, or altering the electoral registers, ballot papers, polling station minutes, results sheets or any other electoral material or documents" is a crime.

Although the irregularities did not significantly alter the outcome of the elections (given the huge scale of the victory for the ruling Frelimo Party and for incumbent president Armando Guebuza), the EU mission warns that "they constitute a serious weakness".

Furthermore, the polling stations with 100 per cent turnout in Gaza and Tete may have altered the distribution of parliamentary seats in those two provinces.

The EU Mission promises to publish a full report of the elections, with detailed analysis, after the results have been validated by the Constitutional Council - which might not occur until early January.

Source: Alafrica (2009.11.18)

Nota: O sublinhado é meu

Boletim sobre o processo político em Moçambique nr 43

O Boletim sobre o processo político em Moçambique, nr 43, de 18 de Novembro de 2009, apenas em inglês, tem os seguintes principais títulos:

Landslide victory for Frelimo and Armando Guebuza;

Déjà vu - An unnecessarily tainted election.

Confira aqui

Elections - How Serious Was Vote Tampering?

Opinion

By Paul Favet

When, on Wednesday, the President of the National Elections Commission (CNE), Joao Leopoldo da Costa, announced the results of the Mozambican general elections held on 28 October, he admitted that serious malpractice had occurred.

This took the form of corrupt polling station staff deliberately adding marks to ballot papers, thus turning valid votes into invalid ones. The electoral law states that any vote with marks beside the name of more than one candidate is invalid.

So unscrupulous staff take votes cast for a candidate they don't like and stick an inky fingerprint, or a blob of ink against another name. Costa attributed this to "lack of civic education or bad faith by some interested parties of people involved in the electoral process".

This is putting it very gently. How can "lack of civic education" possibly be involved? All people present at the count - the staff, the political party monitors, and any observers or journalists know perfectly well that tampering with votes is a crime.

The polling station manual, used as a basis for the training of staff, states that "distorting, replacing, suppressing, stealing, destroying, or altering electoral registers, ballot papers, polling station minutes, results sheets or any other electoral material or documents" is a crime.

The manual also warned that polling station staff are individually responsible "for any criminal acts they may commit during the voting and count". Yet these warnings were not sufficient to deter them, and a significant minority of staff did indeed alter ballot papers.

Costa did not suggest which candidates lost votes this way - but anyone who visited the room where the CNE checked all the ballot papers declared invalid at the polling stations could have seen that this fraud was mostly practiced against the main opposition presidential candidate, Afonso Dhlakama, leader of the former rebel movement Renamo.

AIM did see a few votes from Niassa province where it looked as if the voter had made a neat cross beside the name of incumbent president Armando Guebuza, and somebody else had added an inky fingerprint against Dhlakama's name. But these were vastly outnumbered by the opposite phenomenon - where voters had chosen Dhlakama, and a mysterious mark also appeared beside Guebuza's name.

These, it should be added, are quite distinct from genuinely invalid votes, where the same hand has clearly put a cross beside two or all three of the presidential candidates, or has put his mark in between two candidates, or has scribbled words of insult or praise across the ballot paper.

Costa did not estimate how many votes were fraudulently altered. He said "although the number of votes in this situation does not alter the final outcome of the election, the CNE vehemently repudiates this practice".

The opposition, however, claims that this form of vote tampering was generalized. So is it possible to quantify the problem? First, it should be noted that the total number of invalid votes given by Costa is alarmingly high, at 199,260, which is 4.52 per cent of the 4.4 million people who cast ballots in the presidential election.

In the last election, in 2004, only 2.65 per cent of the presidential ballots were invalid. Unless we imagine that the Mozambican electorate has become substantially more illiterate, uncertain or incompetent between 2004 and 2009, the only reasonable explanation for the rise is vote tampering.

This type of fraud gives itself away statistically. Wherever corrupt staff add marks to ballot papers, there will be an anomalously large number of invalid votes recorded at that polling station. To know how widespread it was on 28 October, one just needs to look at the polling station result sheets.

A complete picture could be obtained by trawling through all the results sheets (over 12,000 of them) on the data base held by STAE (Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat), the executive branch of the CNE.

Fortunately, we already possess a random sample of polling stations - the ones where the Electoral Observatory, the largest and most credible group of Mozambican observers, conducted its parallel count.

There are 975 polling stations in this count, or about eight per cent of the total. They cover almost every district in the country, rural and urban areas, large stations and small stations. We know that the sample is trustworthy, because the results from the Observatory's parallel count are broadly in line with the CNE's results, and with the provisional provincial counts undertaken by STAE.

The total number of invalid votes at the 975 stations was 15,287 - 4.3 per cent of the total, very close to the national figure for invalid votes given by Costa.

If we scan the Observatory stations, we find nothing very remarkable about most of them. The invalid votes account for two or three per cent of the total, and in a good number fall to below one per cent.

But there are others where the percentage climbs to above five per cent, almost all in rural areas. In major cities the problem scarcely occurs - the sample has just one station in Maputo, two in Beira and none in Nampula city where the number of invalid votes is above five per cent.

But alarm bells should begin to sound when the number of invalid votes in a polling station is over ten per cent. That is a clear indication, not of confused voters, but of illicit interference.

In the Electoral Observatory sample, there are 42 stations where the number of invalid votes is between 10 and 20 per cent of the total, 14 where it is between 20 and 30 per cent, and seven where it is over 30 per cent.

The worst case is at a polling station in Machaze district, in the central province of Manica, where 53 per cent of the 438 votes cast were invalid. No-one can seriously imagine that 232 people in this area bothered to walk to a polling station without any idea of who they were going to vote for and so deliberately voted for more than one candidate.

The suspect polling stations sometimes occur in clusters. Thus there are 19 polling stations from the northern coastal district of Angoche in the sample. In five of them the number of invalid votes was over 20 per cent - which suggests a degree of organisation among corrupt Angoche polling staff.

If the entire district had similar levels of invalid votes, one might argue that the problem lies with Angoche voters. But it doesn't. Most of the Angoche stations (11) have under ten per cent invalid votes. Where one station has 3.1 per cent invalid votes, and the next one on the list has ten times as many (31.4 per cent), the only reasonable explanation is vote tampering.

The 63 stations with over 10 per cent invalid votes is 6.5 per cent of the Electoral Observatory sample, and the 21 with over 20 per cent is 2.2 per cent. Since we already know that the sample is reliable and truly random, projections can be made for all 12,595 polling stations that operated in Mozambique These suggest that 818 polling stations were infected by this virus, and that 277 had the truly ridiculous figures of over 20 per cent invalid votes.

Each polling station had seven staff - which means that 5,726 people may have been implicated in vote tampering.

The optimistic view is that this is a minority, that over 90 per cent of the polling stations did not have this problem, and the great majority of the staff were honest. But it only takes a few crooks to cast doubt on an election and to damage the image of the country, the electoral bodies, and the winners.

The CNE says it has reported the matter to the Attorney General's Office. But it also reported the February vote tampering in the second round of the mayoral election in the northern port of Nacala. In this case, some of those who altered the ballots were seen and identified, but to date none have been arrested.

Source: Allafrica

Changara, capital Pyongyang

Espinhos da Micaia

Por Fernando Lima

Neste fim de tarde de mais uma semana abençoada por um feriado, voz amiga conta-me da última viagem pela costa Oeste. O homem estava puto da vida com a conta astronómica da corrida de táxi entre o aeroporto e o centro de Ouaga, a capital do filme africano.

O “nosso homem”, o protagonista clássico das estórias de jornalistas com falta de fontes locais à mão e pressão do “deadline” para a sua primeira estória no exterior, não se impressionou com os protestos do nosso compatriota que apelava à fraternidade africana e à auto-estima da moda. “C’est l’Afrique, mon cher” (estamos em África meu caro), atirou seco o nosso homem do volante.

Lembrei-me do episódio hoje que estamos quase em período de lavar os cestos na maratona eleitoral que vivemos este semestre.

A CNE diz que todas as batotas constatadas não dão para alterar em substância os resultados das eleições. Mas custa e revolta, depois dos relatos idílicos e côr de rosa dos eleitores disciplinados bichando nas assembleias logo pela manhã, que um bando de malfeitores e paus mandados, disfarçados de funcionários eleitorais, pela calada da noite, se tenham entretido a inutilizar milhares de votos ou a encher urnas de votos previamente preparados.

E como dizem os mais sensatos, longe dos discursos de fósforos e ameaças gravadas em cassete, nem sequer havia necessidade de tanta sujeira. O que é preocupante pois os números não mentem. Urnas com 100% de votantes, candidatos com 100% de votos, votos nulos com percentagens acima de 20-30% quando as médias habituais são de 5%.

Mais preocupante ainda. As falcatruas não são transversais a partidos e candidatos. Há claramente uma linha de actuação na fraude: diminuir a visibilidade dos dois candidatos da oposição, minimizar os somatórios dos dois principais partidos da oposição, encher as urnas com votos do candidato e do partido no poder. Os relatos são tristes. Como se Changara não fosse parte de Moçambique e pertencesse a um dos nossos longínquos ex-aliados naturais: a Coreia dos bem amados Kim Il Sung e Kim Jong Il, o seu filho sucessor. É por essas paragens que há habitualmente vitórias de 95%. Como em Changara, o nosso cenário de pistoleiros e faroeste.

“C’est l’Afrique”, diria o nosso taxista filósofo, perante o alinhar pelo estereótipo.

O drama é que o processo já começou torto.

Apesar de não termos ainda os contornos completos do filme, claramente a CNE andou mal na sua falta de transparência de procedimentos e relacionamentos conflituosos com os actores políticos.

O Conselho Constitucional não andou melhor mostrando intransigência quando o momento aconselhava abrangência.

Na sua declaração pós eleitoral, a CNE parece fazer mea culpa perante as evidências dos ilícitos ocorridos durante o acto eleitoral.

Mas é preciso mais.

A Frelimo que se distanciou no início da campanha dos espancamentos e outras violências contra a oposição, tem que se distanciar igualmente, de forma clara e inequívoca do bando de pequenos malfeitores que tomaram de assalto dezenas de mesas eleitorais, ridicularizando as intenções de voto dos moçambicanos.

Para que não fiquemos com a impressão que acabámos de participar numa grande farsa.

SAVANA (12.11.2009)

Vasta cobertura por delegados de candidatura

A Frelimo designou delegados de candidatura para quase todas as mesas de voto enquanto a Renamo cobriu quatro quintos das mesas de voto. O novo partido, MDM, conseguiu cobrir dois terços. Três pequenos partidos também tiveram delegados de candidatura em algumas mesas de voto. Mas houve 13 pequenos partidos que não nomearam qualquer delegado. A tabela em baixo foi divulgada ontem pela Comissão Nacional de Eleições. Cada partido tem o direito de nomear dois delegados seus para cada mesa de voto.

Delegados de candidatura designados pelos concorrentes

Concorrente, n.º de mesas previstas, n.º de delegados e percentagem de cobertura:

Frelimo (12 699), (24 862), (97,8%)

Renamo (12 699), (20 398), (81,8%)

MDM (12 699), (16 607), (65,4%)

PDD (5 498), (2 107 ), (19,2%)

PLD (12 550), (100 ), (0,4% )

Alimo (4 220), (77 ), (0,1% )

Fonte: Boletim sobre o processo político em Moçambique, Número 36, 12 de Novembro de 2009

ELEIÇÕES GERAIS - Daviz Simango felicita vencedores

DAVIZ Simango, presidente do Movimento Democrático de Moçambique (MDM), felicitou ontem, na Beira, em Sofala, o candidato vencedor das eleições presidenciais passadas, Armando Emílio Guebuza, bem assim o partido Frelimo pela sua maioria nas legislativas.

Reagindo ao anúncio pela CNE dos resultados do pleito, Simango desejou igualmente sucessos aos vencedores no exercício das suas funções, embora tenha referido que tal vitória correspondeu à vontade dos órgãos eleitorais.

Encorajou ainda a todos os membros e simpatizantes do movimento que dirige a colaborarem com os órgãos a serem constituídos legalmente com a proclamação e validação dos resultados eleitorais pelo Conselho Constitucional, embora tenha elegido a palavra ilegalidade democrática para classificar o acto eleitoral.

Reiterou o desejo do MDM em prosseguir com a sua participação no processo democrático “e vamos continuar a trabalhar para a construção duma sociedade tolerante, justa e defensora de um desenvolvimento humano, inclusivo e mais solidário”.

Entretanto, o porta-voz do partido, José de Sousa, anunciou a jornalistas que o MDM vai submeter amanhã uma queixa à Procuradoria-Geral da República, sobre “todos os ilícitos eleitorais”.

Fronte: Jornal Notícias

Mozambique: CNE Denounces Vote Tampering

Maputo — The chairperson of Mozambique's National Elections Commission (CNE), Joao Leopoldo da Costa, on Wednesday admitted that the general elections of 28 October were marred by the deliberate invalidation of votes by polling station staff.

At the Maputo public ceremony where he announced the final election results, Costa said the CNE was worried at the "invalidation of valid votes because of lack of civic education or bad faith by some interested parties or people involved in the electoral process".

The law states that any ballot paper with marks beside the names of two candidates is invalid - so corrupt staff members hit on the bright idea of taking votes belonging to a candidate they dislike and adding ink marks to make it seem as if the voters have tried to vote for two candidates. This form of malpractice has been noted since the 2004 general elections.

The CNE publicly denounced the behaviour of dishonest staff at the time of the second round of the mayoral election in the northern port of Nacala in February. Now Costa repeated the denunciation, and reminded his listeners that vote tampering is a crime.

He said that those who altered the votes sometimes used the inkpad or the ballpoint pen left in the voting booths for voters to mark their ballots. With these instruments, they changed the meaning of the ballot.

"Although the number of votes in this situation does not alter the final outcome of the election", said Costa, "the CNE vehemently repudiates this practice and proposes to continue working to discourage such acts, with the involvement of all interested parties. This is an electoral crime punishable under the terms of the electoral law and applicable criminal legislation".

Costa added that it was imperative that the relevant state bodies "should always be prepared and duly trained for criminal investigation about conduct that constitutes electoral crimes".

The CNE said that, after the discovery of vote tampering in the Nacala mayoral election, it informed the Public Prosecutor's Office. But nine months later nobody has been arrested, and the Mozambican observer who witnessed some of this rigging has not been questioned.

Costa did not mention a second form of malpractice - which is the recording of impossibly high turnouts in some polling stations. Thus, in an election where the CNE put national turnout at 44 per cent, the district of Chicualacuala, in Gaza province, claimed a turnout of 96 per cent, and Changara, in Tete province, claimed 95 per cent. In these, and several other districts, there were polling stations that claimed absurd turnouts of 100 per cent or more.

The Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE), the executive wing of the CNE, made an attempt to clean some of this up. There were 122 Changara polling stations, but when AIM looked for Changara results sheets in the STAE data base, only 71 could be found. Thus STAE seems to have eliminated the results from the most egregiously corrupt polling stations.

Although both the main opposition party Renamo, and the breakaway Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) have protested about alleged frauds, neither of them complained to the CNE or to the district and provincial elections commissions.

The electoral law states that, if something illicit happens at a polling station, accredited political party monitors present must protest at once, and have two days to make a complaint to the CNE.

But Costa said that the CNE had received no complaints at all. No party representative had delivered any protest to any of the election commissions within the deadline (which expired on 30 October).

It might well be the case that polling station returning officers refused to accept complaints from monitors. That is a crime, and the polling station manual makes it clear that staff must write down all complaints from monitors.

If the staff refuse to accept the complaint, the monitors should go over their heads to the election commissions, or even report the matter to the police. According to Costa, in not a single instance did any party monitor take such action.

Costa added that the CNE became aware, through its own channels, and not through Renamo, of a brawl at a Mozambique Island polling station, which led to the arrest of a Renamo monitor. He said the CNE immediately took action to ensure that the monitor was released.

Renamo's version of events is that this monitor was protesting at the attempt by a Frelimo voter to stuff extra votes into the ballot boxes. But the monitor did not inform the CNE of this serious offence.

Renamo appoints two members to each of the district and provincial election commissions, and has two members on the CNE. Costa said that in every district the results were approved by consensus. Nowhere did the Renamo appointees vote against them - which means that Renamo did not protest at the obvious malpractice in districts such as Changara and Chicualacuala.

Similarly at national level. The CNE decision approving the results was passed by consensus, with neither of the Renamo appointees dissenting.

Asked about Renamo failure to protest, Ivone Soares, spokesperson for the Renamo election office, told AIM that several district commissions refused to accept Renamo protests. She did not say what steps the Renamo-appointed members of those commissions took, or why they had all apparently rubber-stamped the results.

The Renamo national election agent, Saimone Macuiana, said he had made a protest at the CNE meeting on Tuesday that drew up the resolution on the results. This protest will now be forwarded to the Constitutional Council, which has the final word on electoral disputes, and must validate and proclaim the results.

Source: Allafrica