Around 95% of the electoral disputes and unlawful acts filed with the district courts in the context of the general elections on October 9 were unsuccessful.

According to a AIMAs a result, only 5% of the cases were judged and sentenced, and the file was sent to the Constitutional Council (CC) for due observation and assessment of the impact of the cases that will be decided by the district courts.

Most of the cases were dismissed for various reasons, including the lack of a prior challenge, untimeliness, failure to attach evidence due to lack of knowledge of the procedures of the main players, namely the political parties involved in the process.

In many of the appeals to the courts, the appellants have limited themselves to making general allegations without attaching the necessary evidence, and even in cases where the courts have made inquiries, it has not been possible to confirm the allegations made by the appellants.

The information was given this Thursday (31) in Maputo by the Judge Counsellor and spokesperson for the Supreme Court (TS), Pedro Nhatitima, at a press conference to report on the performance of the district courts during the electoral process.

"During the electoral process, the courts received a total of 305 contentious and illicit electoral cases, of which 142 were contentious, corresponding to 46%, and 163 illicit, corresponding to 54 percent. In summary, of the 142 contentious cases, the decisions fully or partially upheld 09 appeals, corresponding to 5%. Around 95 percent of the appeals were rejected, for various reasons," said Nhatitima.

The provinces of Sofala, Zambézia and Nampula stand out with the highest number of appeals and litigation with a total of 27, 26 and 21 respectively, while the provinces with the lowest numbers of both litigation and unlawful actions are the cities of Maputo, Cabo Delgado and Manica, with around 3, 3 and 07 respectively.

In relation to the cases in question, 265 citizens were made defendants, of whom 78 were convicted, 83 acquitted due to lack of confirmation of their involvement and 104 are still awaiting trial, given that their cases are still ongoing.

The party with the highest number of appeals is the PODEMOS party, the political formation that ranks second in the official count released by the National Electoral Commission (CNE), with a total of 70 appeals submitted to the district courts, followed by Renamo, with 51 appeals and the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM) with 15 appeals submitted.

It should be noted that some contestants asked for the elections to be annulled or repeated due to irregularities considered serious in polling stations, but their appeals were rejected on the grounds that this competence lies with the CC and not the district courts.

Of the few appeals that were upheld, the courts mostly proved that there was a discrepancy between the number of voters and the number of ballot papers in the ballot box, the refusal of the STAE (Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration) to receive complaints, the delivery of too many ballot papers to voters, the failure to call party representatives to attend the intermediate tabulation, among others.

(Photo DR)