Catholic Church Pushes for “Electoral Truth” With Credible Evidence

by MOZTIMES

Maputo (MOZTIMES) – A few days before the Constitutional Council (CC) is due to proclaim the results of the 9 October general elections, the Catholic Church of Mozambique has demanded “the electoral truth, with verifiable and credible evidence”.

The demand from the Catholic Bishops of Mozambique is part of their Christmas message published on Friday, in which they paid special attention to the post-election crisis and to the governance of the country.

The Episcopal Conference of Mozambique (CEM), which brings together all the country’s catholic bishops, stresses that the celebration of Christmas this year coincides with the ruling of the Constitutional Council, scheduled for Monday, 23 December, on the elections held on 9 October.

“We are aware that the results announced may not satisfy all Mozambicans”, said the bishops in their letter. But they demanded that the results should be based on “the electoral truth confirmed by verifiable and credible evidence”.

Regardless of the decision of the Constitutional Council, the Bishops call for peace and harmony among Mozambicans.

“The only path to follow is that of love for “the beloved motherland”, based on a commitment to justice, and the construction and consolidation of peace, harmony, and national unity”, the letter says.

The leadership of the Catholic Church also calls for dialogue, for sharing the wealth of the country, and for an end to autocratic governance: ”. . . to renounce the luxuries of the few to guarantee the needs of all; to renounce frenzied and covetous accumulation of property in favour of the development of the country; to abandon the autocratic exercise of power to give way to a more inclusive governance, which values competence and diversity of opinions.”

In demanding the truth about the elections, confirmed by verifiable and credible evidence, the bishops touched on an essential point about Mozambican elections. The election management bodies, and the Constitutional Council declare winners without presenting clear evidence as to how those candidates declared as winners won the elections.

The verifiable and credible evidence demanded by the bishops would be the results sheets (“editais”) from the polling station and district counts. Those sheets should bear the signatures of the polling station staff and of the members of the district elections commissions.

However, many of the editais presented by the National Elections Commission (CNE) to the Constitutional Council to validate the elections are forgeries. For this reason, the Council resorted to the domestic election observation bodies to request copies of the polling station results sheets in their possession in order to compare them with the editais submitted by the CNE.

This is the case with the widely publicised requests tht the Council made to the Mais Integridade (More Integrity) consortium and to the DECIDE Platform. Both organisations refused to supply the editais, arguing that they too had been falsified.

Without editais that can be proven to be authentic, the Constitutional Council would have little choice but to annul the elections and order that they be repeated.

Several organisations, including the Mozambique Bar Association, have demanded a forensic audit of the elections.

Nonetheless, according to a source in the CC, the Council has “adjusted” the results presented by the CNE and will validate the elections, proclaiming Frelimo and its presidential candidate, Daniel Chapo, the winners.

The CC will take some parliamentary seats allocated by the CNE to Frelimo, and redistribute them among the opposition parties (PODEMOS, RENAMO and the MDM). But essentially, it will maintain the victory of Frelimo, with an absolute parliamentary majority, enabling the governance of Daniel Chapo.

The post-election crisis in Mozambique has already caused more than 130 deaths and hundreds of injuries, mostly shot by the police. There are fears that the violence will continue after the proclamation of the results, scheduled for Monday. (MT)

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