By Paul Fauvet and Sheila Nhancale
Maputo (MOZTIMES) – The Presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, who was backed by Podemos (Optimistic Party for the Development of Mozambique) in the elections held on 9 October, has filed an appeal with the Constitutional Council, the country’s highest body in matters of electoral law, calling for the annulment of votes cast in Zimbabwe since it has been claimed that 296,519 Zimbabwean citizens were illegally allowed to vote.
According to a document signed by Mondlane’s lawyer, Judite Simão, the election in the polling stations set up in Zimbabwe must be annulled, taking into account the data from a report by the “Southern Africa Human Rights Lawyers High Commission Mozambique”, which states that Zimbabwean citizens voted in the Mozambican elections.
“If there is a will and interest in examining the matter, steps can be taken with the interior ministry to ascertain whether or not the 296,519 voters are Mozambicans with dual nationality,” reads the appeal.
Under the Mozambican system, Mozambicans living in the diaspora can vote in presidential and parliamentary election – but only if they reside in one of just nine countries. There are two constituencies for the diaspora, one in Africa and one in “the rest of the world”. The “rest of the world” constituency consists of just a few hundred Mozambicans living in Portugal and Germany.
The Africa constituency is much larger, consisting of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Eswatini, Tanzania and Kenya. There are 250 members of the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic: 248 are elected in Mozambican provincial constituencies, and just two in the diaspora – one in Africa, and one in the “rest of the world”.
Most of the voters in the Africa constituency are in South Africa. So Mozambicans living in Zimbabwe elect less than one member of the Assembly, which is unlikely to make much difference to the overall parliamentary election, even if many of the voters in Zimbabwe are Zimbabweans pretending to be Mozambicans.
Indeed, even if the entire adult population of Zimbabwe were to register as Mozambican voters, they would still only elect one member of the Assembly.
The requirements for voting are the same in the diaspora as in the Mozambican provinces. Each would-be voter must prove that he/she is a Mozambican citizen. Only then will he/she obtain a voter card allowing him/her to cast a vote at a polling station.
Furthermore, statistics published by the Mozambican National Elections Commission (CNE) show that in the Africa constituency, 330,092 people registered to vote. Of these 177,762 actually voted – nowhere near the 296,519 fake voters claimed by the Southern African Human Rights Lawyers High Commission.
About 90 per cent of the voters in the Africa constituency voted for the ruling Frelimo Party and its presidential candidate, Daniel Chapo. So the diaspora voters delivered one seat to Frelimo.
Fraud among the diaspora would be more serious in the presidential election. In a close contest 300,000 fake voters in Zimbabwe could make a significant difference, and so the allegations should certainly be investigated. (PF,SN)
