The full bulletin in pdf is on
Guruè and Marromeu courts reject appeals but admit signs of crimes
District courts in Gurué and Marromeu courts recognised signs of electoral crimes, but they rejected opposition appeals yesterday (Saturday 16 December) against the Sunday 10 December rerun election. In both cases the courts simply said the evidence of electoral crimes will be forwarded to the attorney general.
The Guruè District Court said Renamo provided no proof in the matter of the voter rolls, and there is no valid justification for an appeal in the case of the district tabulation (intermediate count). The Marromeu Court states that there are no grounds for the Renamo request to annul the results at 18 polling stations because all the minutes and result sheets (editais) for all 41 polling stations as supplied by the district election commission were signed by the polling stations staff and party delegates, which was attested to by the presiding officers.
Gross misconduct by those presiding officers whose word was accepted by the Marromeu court was highlighted by the Mais Integridade civil society observer in its 13 December report. The consortium reported that in many polling stations presiding officers held “consultations” with representatives of Frelimo before finalising the process and filling in the editais and in some cases left the polling station with the editaiswithout posting them.
Indeed, Mais Integridade said, serious irregularities in the repeat elections in Marromeu Sunday “do not allow any institution to declare, with any credibility and certainty, which list won.”
—————
Pre-dawn count in Gurué was illegal
The tabulation of votes undertaken by the Gurué District Elections Commission was clearly illegal, despite the ruling of the District Court. The minutes of the district count say it took place between 05.00 and 05.20 early Monday morning, 11 December.
Opening (início):
Closing (Encerramento):
The main opposition party in Gurué, Nova Democrácia (ND, New Democracy), said that political parties were only invited to the count for 08.00, at which point they were simply handed the edital (results sheet), without any breakdown of the results by polling station. The electoral law is clear (Law 14/2018 art 110). The centralization is done polling station by polling station and party agents (mandatários) can attend. Further, during the counting operations the mandatários can make complaints and protests, which must be considered at that meeting by the district commission. That ruling can be appealed to the courts. By not being told about the 5am count, ND was illegally prevented from making protests about ballot box stuffing and other frauds.
—————
District Commander accused of detaining Gurué STAE official so he could not attend the vote count
Agostinho Morgado accuses the Gurué district police commander of ordering “a heavily armed military and police contingent” to detain him illegally, without an arrest warrant and without any explanation.
The detention occurred in Gurué at around 18.00 on 10 December, the day on which the municipal elections were repeated, and during the count. Agostinho Morgado holds the post of deputy head of the Department of Election Organisation and Operations in Guruè.
He says that the commander, without giving any explanation of the reasons for his detention, merely ordered the officer on duty to take from him “belongings such as identification badge, reflecting vest bearing the CNE/STAE stamp, the STAE notepad, pen, cell phone, charger and wallet of documents”.
Then, at 18.47 the district commander ordered the officer on duty to take Morgado to the cells in the police station, where he stayed until 21.17, after the counting of the votes had finished.
