Electoral System
Mozambique’s
electoral system for Parliamentary elections is proportional representation,
with a five per cent threshold for representation. The candidate elected as
President is the candidate who receives the majority of votes cast. If no
candidate receives more than 50% of the votes cast, run-off elections are held
where the weakest candidates are eliminated and the candidate that receives the
most votes is elected.
Concurrent
Presidential and Parliamentary elections are held every five years.
The Counting Process
Counting
takes place at the voting stations after the close of voting. Counting is
conducted by the presiding officer in the presence of candidate and party
agents, observers and counting officials.
There
are three phases to counting votes in Mozambique.
Partial Counting and Verification
Partial
counting and verification takes place at the voting station and begins directly
after the voting has been completed.
The
electoral officer in charge of the voting station closes the voters’ roll,
which has to be signed by all the party and candidate representatives. The
remaining ballot papers are counted and verified against the number people who
voted at that voting station.
The
ballot boxes are opened and the ballots are counted. Ballots are then returned
to the ballot boxes and ballot boxes are closed until they are once again
counted in the verification phase.
The number
of ballots counted is announced publicly and the results displayed in form of a
publication. In the event that there are discrepancies between the number of
ballots in the ballot boxes and the number of voters that voted, the ballots
will be taken as the true figure unless the ballots exceed the number of voters
registered. If ballots exceed the number of registered voters, the votes are
considered null and voting will take place on the second Sunday after the final
decision of nullification of the vote.
The
voter verification at the voting station takes place in the following manner:
- The presiding officer opens each ballot and announces the name of the candidate or party that was voted for;
- The secretary registers the votes attributed to each candidate or party on sheets of white paper or on a big board, if one exists;
- the second scribe places the votes separated by lots which will correspond with each candidate or party including spoilt ballots;
- the two scribes counts each of the lots;
- the presiding officer announces the number of votes that each candidate or party has received.
It is only after the counting that party representatives have the right
to examine the lots of ballots and if necessary present their complaints to the
presiding officer.
If a decision is challenged; it should be noted on the
back of the ballot and signed by the presiding officer and the agent making the
challenge. The challenged decision does not affect the result at this stage but
is sent (within 24 hours) to the National Electoral Commission for a final
decision.
An edict is completed showing the number of registered
voters, the number of ballots in the ballot box, the number of ballots each
party or candidate received and the number of blank and invalid votes. The polling
officials must sign the edicts. The result edicts are then displayed publicly
at the voting station.
The ballot boxes, the minutes, the published results,
the voters’ roll, the number of contested votes, any problems experienced and
any remaining documentation is delivered to the district or city Election
Commission, who in turn have to ensure that all this material is received by
the Provincial Election Commission within a period of 48 hours.
Party representatives have the right to accompany the transportation of
the materials. Security is also present when ballots are transported.
Provincial Verification
Provincial verification is the responsibility of the
Provincial Election Commission, which has to centralise the results of each
district including all the voting stations within the respective district. This
verification is based on the minutes, published results and any other
documentation produced at the respective voting stations.
All ballots that have been challenged or considered
null have to be submitted to the National Election Commission (CNE) within a
period of 24 hours.
The final lists of centralised
results per district have to include the following:
- total number of registered voters;
- total number and percentage of voters that did vote in relation to the number of registered voters;
- total number and percentage of voters that did not vote in relation to the number of registered voters
- total number and percentage of valid votes in relation to the number of votes cast;
- total number and percentage of blank ballots in relation to the number of votes cast;
- total number and percentage of null votes in relation to the number of votes cast;
- total number of votes that each candidate received in relation to the number of the valid votes cast.
Verification
of the votes is finalised by producing minutes and lists of results. Copies of
these documents have to be signed and stamped and given to the party and
candidate agents. Observers and journalists can also request copies of these
documents.
At the
provincial level, results are entered into a results database. All party and
candidate agents are given access to the database to compare their tallies recorded
at the voting stations to those entered into the database.
National Verification
It is
the responsibility of the CNE to re-evaluate the ballots that have been
challenged and those that have been declared invalid. The CNE is responsible
for centralizing all the results. This stage of the counting takes place in the
capital city, Maputo.
The
sealed transport bags are organised by province. The bags are opened and two
CNE members appointed by different parties review every ballot. The regulations
allow for a wide interpretation of what constitutes a valid ballot.
A
document is filled out for each polling station, specifying the number of
invalid votes that have been reclassified as valid and to which party or
candidate they have been assigned. The results are then tallied for the whole
province on a separate form.
Other
CNE members review the problematic edicts that had been forwarded by the
Provinces. Whenever the problems are resolved, the number of votes is entered
into the database. The summarised results of the reclassification of invalid
and contested votes are added to the databases with the provincial results.
This tabulation is then calculated according to a formula to determine the
distribution of parliamentary seats.
To
determine the outcome of the presidential race, the figures are added together
for nation-wide results. The official results must be publicly announced,
within 15 days after the close of the poll, by the CNE. There is no provision
for recounting. Challenges to the results may be made through the court system,
the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Council.
