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:
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:
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.
