The Optimist Party for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos) PODEMOS, has filed a lawsuit demanding a recount of the results of the country's elections, which led to protests and violence after Frelimo was named the winner.

The lawsuit, filed on Sunday, asked the Constitutional Court to give "a true judgment on who won the elections," according to the text of the document seen by the French news agency, AFP.

In a publication by VOAThe party supporting Venâncio Mondlane's presidential bid demanded that the court "repeat the general count" of the votes, citing numerous alleged irregularities in the October 9 election.

Last Thursday, the National Electoral Commission (CNE) announced the candidate of the ruling Frelimo party, Daniel Chapo, as the winner with 71% of the votes and 195 of the 250 seats in Parliament.

Meanwhile, PODEMOS published its own count, stating that its candidate Venâncio Mondlane won with 53.3% and 138 seats.

PODEMOS in its legal appeal demanded that the polling stations hand over full details of how they counted the numbers of votes they submitted to the CNE. EU officials said they had noticed "irregularities during the count and unjustified alteration of election results at polling station and district level".

From a political formation with no national visibility to the second party in the next National Assembly, the Optimist Party for the Development of Mozambique (PODEMOS) has become the great revelation of the October 9 elections.

(Photo DR)