Foreign observers on Tuesday voiced concern over alleged irregularities in the counting of votes from Mozambique’s presidential and legislative polls held last week. Both the European Union and the United States government issued statements on Tuesday pointing at problems in the tallying process after last Wednesday’s polls. “Despite an orderly election day, these processes have encountered many difficulties and adversities,” the EU observer mission said. These included “faulty” handling of final result sheets from polling stations and lengthy tabulation procedures. The EU “considers that such mishaps in the tabulation process, added to the absence of official public explanations about these difficulties, hinders what has been an orderly start on election day.”
The EU observers noted that legal deadlines for the announcement of district and provincial results “were in their majority unfulfilled.”
Calling for a “rigorous counting process”, the US government said it had noted “some irregularities arising in the reconciliation of the results of polling stations with district counts”.
International and domestic observers had praised Mozambique’s election day as generally peaceful and orderly, despite several incidents of violence.
Provisional tallies by the national electoral commission so far are showing the ruling Frelimo party, in power since independence in 1975, leading with around 60 percent of the votes.
Full Article: US, EU concerned over delayed Mozambique vote count – Yahoo News.