Mozambique: Constitutional Council Judges Claim to Be Victims of Death Threats

Maputo — The judges of the Constitutional Council, Mozambique’s highest body in matters of electoral law, claim that they have been receiving death threats through messages “sent to their phones or posted on social media’, at a moment when the body is expected to announce the final results of the presidential, parliamentary and provincial elections held on 9 October.

In a statement issued on Monday, Lúcia Ribeiro, the chairperson of the Council, condemned the threats saying that they are not weapons of democracy.

Since 21 October, the country has been facing mass demonstrations called by the presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, backed by Podemos (Optimistic Party for the Development of Mozambique), in order to protest against the allegedly fraudulent preliminary results already announced by the National Elections Commission (CNE) giving victory to the ruling Frelimo party and its candidate, Daniel Chapo.

However, Mondlane claims that he won the elections and the CNE announcement was based on fraudulent figures.

In the ensuing demonstrations over 60 people were shot dead by the police and hundreds were injured, according to the anti-corruption NGO, the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP).

“Faced with this complex and intolerant scenario, there have been individual and institutional pronouncements, both national and foreign, calling for transparency and integrity in the electoral process’, Ribeiro said.

She added that the Council is no stranger to the situation of instability and insecurity associated with the election results. Ribeiro said “some demonstrations have descended into acts of vandalism and limited the individual freedoms of all those who did not join them.’

“The Constitutional Council will never shirk its constitutional obligation to seek electoral truth and justice’, she claimed, and, since there can be no appeals against the Council’s rulings, these “must be fair, constitutionally valid and duly founded on the elements found in the electoral process’, says the note.

There is no deadline in the electoral legislation for the Council to validate and proclaim the results. But there is an implicit deadline in the Constitution itself, which states that the first session of the new parliament must be held within 20 days of the proclamation of the election results.

Since the current parliament took office on 12 January 2020 for a five year period, Ribeiro interprets this as meaning that the Council must proclaim the results by 23 December.

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If this is a real deadline, then 75 days will have passed between polling day and the announcement of definitive results (this compares with just two days to reach a result in Botswana’s recent presidential election).

The Council, said Ribeiro, “is engaged in the process of validating the election results, reconciling documents requested from the CNE and those requested and made available by some political parties contesting the elections, as well as by civil society organizations’.

The Council assures the public that it has been working hard to achieve the much sought-after electoral truth.

“Because we share the same purpose, we must all contribute to ensuring the transparency and integrity of the electoral process. The electoral administration, administrative or judicial bodies, political forces, the police and civil society in general are all called upon to play their part in favor of the Mozambican nation’, says Ribeiro’s note.

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