| Municipal Election Observation in Mozambique |
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On 19 November 2008 municipal elections took place in Mozambique. For 10 out of the 43 municipalities these were the first elections ever to be held. According to the results announced on 4 December by the president of CNE National Commission of Elections, the ruling party Frelimo won in 41 municipalities. The overall turnout was 46% of registered voters, compared to 28% in the 2003 municipal elections and 43% in the 2004 national elections. In the Municipality of Beira in Central Mozambique, the former mayor Daviz Simango ran as an independent candidate after internal struggles within the opposition party Renamo and won a huge victory to be re-elected mayor. It is worth nothing that his supporting group (Grupo de Reflexão e Mudanças) did not win any seat in the Municipal Assembly. The composition of the Municipal Assembly is shared between Frelimo with 19 seats, Renamo with 17 seats and 9 seats for the smaller parties (PIMO, PDD and GDB). In the municipality of Nacala Porto a second round will be organised in February due to the fact that neither Frelimo nor Renamo managed to achieve 50% of the votes. Renamo had five mayors during the last mandate including Beira and Nacala Porto. Now the biggest opposition party has lost four municipalities in favour of Frelimo (3) and Daviz Simango (1).
Please click here for the final analysis by CIP and AWEPA. Please click here for final election results. Despite of some complaints by Renamo, in general the electoral process was perceived as calm, free, fair and transparent. The same opinion is shared by more than 1000 national and 89 international observers.
"The International Observer Mission found that, in general, the elections on 19 November were conducted well" reported the group of 89 foreign diplomats who observed the local elections in 18 municipalities. "In general, the electoral rules were followed and the process was transparent." But the observers did raise some criticisms such as the huge number of voters that each polling station had to handle in one day and called on the CNE to "adjust the voting process in advance of future elections". Through a joint initiative of the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP) and AWEPA, "citizen correspondents" actively participated in the oversight of municipal elections. They could monitor the electoral process by sending information about irregularities by email and via mobile over the course of the campaign and on the voting day. This information has been published in the Political Process in Mozambique blog, which is accessible on the CIP website.
For website in Portuguese click here CIP and AWEPA have published a daily bulletin on the municipal elections. To read the bulletins click here Eleven staff members of AWEPA Mozambique participated in the electoral process as observers.
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