Borges Nhamirre, a researcher at the Center for Public Integrity (CIP), condemns the fact that the Constitutional Council (CC) presented a ruling on the election results without explaining the treatment given to the cases that led to reversals and changes in numbers in some of the municipalities.

On Friday (24), the CC presented election results for October 11, 2023, in which it awarded victory to the Frelimo party in 54 municipalities, to Renamo in four and to the MDM in one. It annulled the results in some polling stations in three municipalities and annulled them in one municipality. It showed a reduction of thousands of votes for the Frelimo party and an increase in votes for Renamo in several municipalities.

O CC ruling showed that the results presented by the National Electoral Commission (CNE) on October 26 were full of irregularities.

"What we have now is not the result of ignorance. It's the result of things premeditated to deny the expression of the will of the electorate.... And the Constitutional Council has just done the nation a terrible disservice today," he said on Friday on the CIP Cast program, commenting on and analyzing the CC's ruling on the results of the 11 October elections.

The CIP researcher criticizes the CC's lack of explanations, which led it to obtain different results from those presented by the CNE and to order a repeat of the voting process in those polling stations and one municipality.

"There is no transparency. The Constitutional Council, if it wanted to, had to be transparent, explain in the ruling what happened to change the results of the four municipalities where it changed, and even changed the victory," he said.

He gave as an example the fact that Frelimo lost five seats in the Matola municipal assembly.

"What happened for Frelimo to lose? It means it had more votes. Where did those votes come from? Which ones? From which table?" he asked, noting that the judges "have done us a disservice".

On the other hand, answering the question about the possibility of holding another action to contest the results presented by the CC, the last body to "close the debate" contesting the elections, Borges Nhamirre noted that only in the event of a political crisis can the power of the bodies be redefined.

In practical terms, "if millions of Mozambicans demonstrate, march, stay on the streets, carrying out civil disobedience, the constitution will be suspended, which will lead to the suspension of the power of the organs," he explained, recalling the fall of the law during the Arab Spring. "Neither the constitution nor the organs are eternal." He warned that he was not inciting violence.