Mozambique: Council
Dismisses Vote Rigging Allegations
Mozambique's
Constitutional Council has dismissed opposition’s allegations of
vote rigging, in elections which the ruling FRELIMO party won by
a landslide.
Opposition RENAMO party had said it would hold a nationwide
protest after the Council turned down its appeal for annulment
of results of the October 28 poll and demands for new elections.
Geraldo Saranga, the Secretary General of the Constitutional
Council, said in the newspaper report, ’’What I can say,
briefly, is that there is a lack of legal arguments that can
support Renamo's electoral appeal.’’
RENAMO had accused President Armando Guebuza's FRELIMO, the
party that has ruled Mozambique since independence in 1975, of
stuffing ballot boxes and other ‘electoral crimes’.
Standing
Official results showed Frelimo won 75 percent of the vote
to 18 percent for Renamo.
The victory gives the ruling party the power to change the
constitution.
Renamo fought the Frelimo government in a 16-year civil war
after independence from Portugal and has accused it of fraud in
all of Mozambique's four national elections since a 1992 peace
agreement.
Next move
Renamo has vowed to press on with its demands by organising
a protest rally.
Renamo national spokesman, Fernando Mazanga said, ’’Our position
now is that we are going to organise a nationwide demonstration
in protest at the ruling, we will demand the establishment of an
electoral court because the Constitutional Council only deals
with appeals and its ruling is final.’’
Renamo had submitted the 500-page appeal to the National
Electoral Commission on November 16. The commission forwarded it
to the Constitutional Council, along with its own report on the
poll.
REUTERS/Yinka
