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MAPUTO. —After almost three months of waiting, the Constitutional Council, the highest body in electoral issues in Mozambique gave on Tuesday its verdict on the general and provincial elections held on October 15, just a day after Afonso Dhlakama, leader Renamo, has threatened violence if the results were validated.

The long wait is what contributed to suspicions in various political circles in Mozambique that the results were being fabricated by the National Elections Commission (CNE).

The two opposition presidential candidates, Afonso Dhlakama of Renamo and Daviz Simango come out publicly against this and rejected the first results published by the National Elections Commission (CNE) at the end of October which gave victory to the ruling Frelimo and its presidential candidate Filipe Nyusi.

Tuesday’s ceremony was probably the last bullet point in the long legal process to close the October 15 electoral dossier and what is left now is to mend the sores created within the Mozambican society by the electoral process.

Frelimo and its presidential candidate have won but have ahead a divided country: some circles believe Renamo and its presidential candidate won the elections but the big problem of the opposition is to substantiate its claim of fraud or irregularities as during the elections Renamo had 26 761 monitors at the 17 010 polling stations but they failed to use the electoral law to report any of electoral misconduct they now claim.

Paulo Cuinica, the spokesperson of CNE said that the electoral body did not receive a single protest from any polling station which all had a kit containing printed sheets where monitors were entitled to write down any complaints or protests.

These went unused. Not a single monitor filed a protest at any of the polling stations.

In fact, just 24 cases were submitted to the district courts in the entire country, and several of these came from Frelimo and the MDM.

According to Pedro Nhatitima, spokesperson for the Supreme Court, all the Renamo appeals were rejected by the district courts because Renamo presented no evidence, or because the appeals were lodged beyond the 48 hour deadline established by the electoral law.

The results validated and proclaimed on Tuesday, were just a confirmation of what was announced end of last October by the National Elections Commission (CNE): a victory for the ruling Frelimo Party and its presidential candidate, Filipe Nyusi, although with a much lower share of the vote than Frelimo had achieved in the previous elections, in 2009, when it won 75 percent.

This time Nyusi took 57 percent of the vote to 36.6 percent for Dhlakama.

In the parliamentary election, Frelimo lost 47 seats, but retained an overall majority.

On the CNE’s figures, Frelimo will have 144 seats in the new parliament, Renamo 89 and the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) 17. — Xinhua.