Former US President Jimmy Carter, who died 29 December at age 100, is probably the only eminent person who was brave enough to publicly say Frelimo lost an election. In 1999 the counting and changing of results became more obvious, and became known to the international observers. The international community decided it did not want a Renamo victory so backed Frelimo and did not object to the changes.
Carter and his Carter Center observed both 1999 and 2004 elections. In press briefings in 2004 he broke ranks and told the truth about 1999. In meetings in late 2004 in Maputo the former president made clear that it was impossible to know who had actually won in 1999, but that Renamo head Afonso Dhlakama probably won. Carter said the “amount of corrections made to the results in 1999 exceeded anything in any similar election I have ever witnessed” and the exclusion of more than 700 polling stations that year was “extraordinary. It is simply hard to believe that so many results sheets could not be used”.
The Carter Center had followed the lead of other observers in its initial relatively positive reports shortly after the 3-5 December 1999 elections. But more information became available, showing that when it became clear that President Chissano was losing, the National Elections Commission (CNE) sent computer technicians to several province to change the results. On 19 December official data processing was abandoned. The final national edital (results sheet) was produced on a normal laptop computer. Results were announced on 22 December 1999. STAE (Election technical secretariat) director António Carrasco said in an interview in the daily Notícias (10 January 2000) that results had been changed in at least three provinces, but details were never revealed. (CIP: 25 years of electoral fraud, protected by secrecy, https://bit.ly/Moz-El-Fraud). The CNE refused to publish detailed election results. The Carter Centre August 2000 report effectively rejected the electoral results: “Although Carter Center observers made repeated requests, they were not provided sufficient access to verify the final tabulation nor analyse thoroughly the subsequent review.”
But it was too late. Frelimo took initial donor approval of the elections as evidence that it would be supported to change the results when necessary, and no donor government has ever publicly challenged fraudulent election results.
In the period just after the 1999 election, Carter lacked the evidence. But even by August 2000 the tone of the Carter Centre reports had changed. And by 2004 Carter was particularly outspoken.
This was not the first time that Jimmy Carter spoke out and said that an election was fraudulent. In May 1989 the first Carter Center observation was in Panama and was led by the former President himself. Gen Manuel Noriega was military ruler and his presidential candidate was soundly beaten, but the election commission was in Noriega’s pocket. Carter confronted top election officials and yelled out, in Spanish, “Are you honest people or are you thieves?” The election commission stopped him from talking to the press on the spot, so he walked across the road and gave a press conference in the lobby of the Marriot Hotel. “The government is taking the election by fraud,” he said. “It’s robbing the people of Panama of their legitimate rights.”
Where is the next Carter, now that we need him?
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Frelimo in CNE sets key dates
Wednesday 15 January is the date set by law for the inauguration of the President. But the other dates are set by the National Elections Commission. It met on Saturday 28 December, but only Frelimo members voted. Dates selected are:
Monday 13 January members of parliament take office.
Monday 20 January members of provincial assemblies take office.
Wednesday 22 January all voting materials used for the 9 October election will be destroyed, preventing any audit or recount.
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More than 176 killed in 7 days
More than 278 people have been killed, mainly by police, in the post electoral demonstrations, according to Platforma Electoral Decide. Of those, at least 176 were killed in the week 23-29 December.
Platforma keeps the most accurate record, but even it is falling behind. In several districts, such as Ribáuè, in Nampula; and Morrumbala and Alto Molócuè, in Zambézia, in the period 26-28 December dozens of protesters died, including members of the Naparama peasant militias (Ribáuè and Morrumbala). The data have not yet been confirmed, but our sources speak of the deaths, between 26 and 28 December, of 10 people in Morrumbala, eight in Alto Molócuè and six in Ribáuè. And there is no tally of the number killed in the Maputo central prison. https://bit.ly/Moz-El-355
