Independent candidate Venâncio Mondlane said he was gathering evidence to challenge the election results and that he would appeal to the Constitutional Council after the National Electoral Commission (CNE) announced the election results..

"We are currently aggregating the original public notices at national level. We're making copies, we're scanning them, so that we have a digital record of all the material, and we're sending them little by little to Maputo, to see if, after the CNE announces the national results, we can quickly file an appeal with the Constitutional Council," said the presidential candidate.

According to a Voice of America (VOA), Mondlane, speaking to journalists in Beira, central Mozambique, this Thursday (17), contested the provisional results presented by the Provincial Electoral Commission, which put the ruling party, Frelimo, ahead of the race, with more than 60% of the votes. The candidate supported by the extra-parliamentary party PODEMOS says he will present the original voting minutes as proof.

Mondlane speaks of a "gigantic exercise" at national level. "This is our foundation, our concern, because it involves a lot of gymnastics, both in financial terms and in organizational terms, as well as in terms of legal capacity to substantiate the appeal."

This week, the Attorney General's Office ordered the candidate to refrain from "social unrest and incitement to violence". Mondlane said it was "intimidation".

"It's the legitimization of a gross and grandiose fraud that has no other way of doing it than to use the justice system for intimidation (...) For us not to fight for our rights, for us not to fight to restore the truth, for us not to fight to defend the will of the people, so it's all intimidation. It has no legal basis," added Venâncio Mondlane.

The candidate, who according to the provisional results is in first place in Beira, says he wants to continue to "motivate people, motivate young people, that we have to remain firm, we have to continue to fight on the basis of all the windows that legally exist for this purpose".

Mondlane went on to call for a national strike next Monday, October 21. "It's not a public demonstration to attack institutions. If that happens, it's out of line with what we want. It's just a stoppage of activities. That's all, it's no more or less than that," he said.

The National Electoral Commission (CNE) has a deadline of up to 15 days - after the polls close - to announce the results, which then have to be validated by the Constitutional Council, which has no deadline for a final proclamation and still has to analyze the appeals received. The full results are expected on October 24th.

(Photo DR)