Renamo should learn to tango

Good afternoon. As we reported yesterday, a court in the KaMavota district of the city of Maputo has struck down the official result in that district from last week’s local elections, after opposition party Renamo complained about fraud and wrongdoing in the vote count. Although the case was brought by Renamo, the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM) party testified.

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🗳 The number of votes ruling party Frelimo officially won in the local election in Gurué, Zambézia province, exceeded the number of eligible voters, according to a report by newspaper Canal de Moçambique on its Facebook page. Allegations of mass fraud in last week’s poll are currently being reviewe…

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This is not an isolated example of Mozambique’s two biggest opposition parties apparently having each other’s back. The MDM was also the first actor to declare that, on the basis of an unofficial, parallel vote count, Renamo had won control of the two biggest cities of Matola and Maputo, contrary to the official result which awarded them to ruling party Frelimo. This even though the parallel vote count would only give 11% of the vote to the MDM. The MDM also followed up Renamo’s election complaint to a court in Matola with a complaint of its own. This paid off: the court rejected Renamo’s complaint, but upheld the MDM’s.