SANF 08 No 76
Preliminary results show that the ruling Frelimo party is expected to win at least 41 of 43 municipalities that held elections on 19 November.
This result would mean that Frelimo has managed to wrest away at least four municipalities from the opposition Renamo. Five years ago, at the previous municipal elections, Frelimo won 28 out of 33 municipalities. However, because the law stipulates the gradual upgrade of more towns to the level of municipalities, Parliament decided in 2007 to add 10 more towns, bringing the number to 43.
Results for 31 of the 43 municipalities announced on Thursday afternoon by the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE), the country’s electoral branch of the civil service, showed that Frelimo was on course of sweeping the board.
The only town were it had failed to win despite serious campaigning is the central port city of Beira, where Deviz Simango was in a strong position to be re-elected mayor with almost 60 percent of the ballots counted.
Running as an independent, Simango saw off both Frelimo and Renamo candidates, businessman Lourenço Bulha, and Manuel Perreira. Simango was first elected mayor on Renamo’s ticket but party infighting and lack of leadership triggered a last minute replacement as the party candidate by Perreira.
However, Frelimo is likely to become the largest party in the municipal assembly for Beira, although not a majority. Judging by the voting trend, Renamo’s vote might have gone to the independent Group for Democracy in Beira (GDB), which will now hold the balance of power in the municipal assembly (council).
Other municipalities that Renamo lost are Angoche, a coastal town in the northern Nampula province, Marromeu in the central Sofala province, and possibly Mozambique Island. It is still unclear who won the port of Nacala municipality as only 28 of the 99 polling stations have been counted.
In much of the country, especially in the south, Frelimo and its mayoral candidates won resoundingly. In Gaza, for example, Frelimo won in all the municipalities and it does not seem as if Renamo is managing to make any inroads.
There were a fewer women vying for mayoral positions: only five. Two of those have been elected as mayors on a Frelimo ticket. However, the number of women is likely to rise once all the municipal assembly seats have been allocated.
STAE says that turnout is likely to be over 50 percent, which will be a strong showing from the previous municipal elections when only 28 percent turned out to vote.
Local observers and journalists have been quick to point out that the poll was well organised. The new procedures, such as a new register book with the photo of the voter, have been quite accurate.
There were some minor problems, which do not impact on the overall conduct of the election, such as some polling stations opening well past closing time at 22h00 owing to long queues, and slow counting.
For the first time, the National Election Commission (CNE) allowed for reporting partial results, and this has also worked well. Radio Mozambique has been doing its parallel count of results from as early as they were pasted on walls, and they matched accurately those of STAE.
