Mozambique Vote Monitors Seek Access

After complaints from election monitors, observers from the European Union and the Commonwealth have asked Mozambique for access to centers where votes from last week’s balloting are being verified.

The impoverished southern African country went to the polls Wednesday and Thursday, and a preliminary count was complete. But the data still have to be fed into computers and verified in the 11 provinces and the capital, Maputo, before a formal announcement, and monitors want to assess that process.

Tabulating the results is the final phase in the election for a successor to President Joaquim Chissano, who has been in power for nearly two decades.

Radio Mozambique said Saturday that with 570,150 votes counted, Armando Guebuza of Chissano’s Frelimo party had 421,434 votes versus 138,194 for his main opponent, Afonso Dhlakama of the former rebel movement Renamo. Three candidates from smaller parties trailed further behind.

Former President Carter, the leading figure among several hundred international observers, and African monitoring groups complained that they were denied access to tabulation centers, raising questions about independent verification of the ballot.

Commonwealth observer group head Vaughan Lewis described the voting as meticulous and transparent, although counting at polling stations took a long time.

“We hope ... our Commonwealth colleagues can be given full access to and information about the rest of the results procedures. This is as important for the credibility of the next part of the process as it was for the part which has just been completed,” Lewis said.

The European Union observer mission’s leader, Javier Pomes, echoed that call, telling reporters, “We hope to have full access, which is essential to making a complete evaluation of the process.”

The Commonwealth mostly consists of former British colonies, but includes Mozambique, which was ruled by Portugal. Its observer group said some polling stations did not open at all and some opened a day late.

Confusion about the locations of stations in various places meant people there were unable to vote.

And in rural areas, polling stations were sometimes too far away, it said.

About 9.1 million people registered to vote, but observers said only up to 30% of them cast their ballots.

Heavy rains and logistical problems during the two days of voting contributed to the low turnout.

The World Bank’s program to rebuild Mozambique is one of its biggest in Africa.

Mozambique, which was devastated by years of civil war, has one of the highest economic growth rates in the world, averaging 10% over the last decade, but from an extremely low starting point. Half of the nation’s 18 million people are very poor, and unemployment stands at 50%.