Maputo, – The United States Embassy has joined other observation bodies in raising concerns about the fairness of the elections in Mozambique.
This is coming as unofficial preliminary results continue to trickle in on Friday, pointing towards victory for ruling party Frelimo.
“Election observers witnessed a number of irregularities and vulnerabilities during the voting and the first stages of the tabulation process,’’ the embassy said in a statement.
The embassy, which deployed 25 teams to observe the electoral process in the country’s 11 provinces, also said there had been some disturbing incidents.
The embassy said incidents such as violence and intimidation“may have contributed to public doubts about a safe and fair election.’’
The concerns echo those raised by the EU Election Observation Mission, as well as local civic groups, the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP) and Sala da Paz.
The US embassy also listed concerns about discrepancies between voter registration and census results, the inability of many independent local observers to obtain credentials, and pre-marked ballots and ballot stuffing on voting day.
The CIP reported on Thursday that a number of opposition members had refused to sign the results tables.
The presidential, parliamentary and provincial elections held on Oct. 15, are considered crucial to stability in the southern African country.
But, in the run-up to elections, analysts said that they doubted the process would be free and fair because Frelimo would not be willing to give up power.
Official results are yet to be released, with a number of analysts expecting them only in November, due to a complicated authentication procedure. (dpa/NAN)
