An attempt to annul the results of last month’s elections in Mozambique has failed.
The main opposition party in our eastern neighbour, the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), had approached the country’s Constitutional Court to have the election results declared null and void.
Renamo had a disastrous election, winning only 22% of the parliamentary vote, while the governing Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) managed over 70% of the vote. Renamo presidential candidate Ossufu Momade won barely a fifth of the vote in the presidential poll. In 2014, Renamo managed to win over 30% of the vote, both in the presidential and parliamentary poll.
The Constitutional Court said Renamo had not provided enough evidence for an annulment of the election results to be considered.
However, local civil society groups as well as international observers also expressed serious doubts about last month’s elections. The European Union said that there had been ‘irregularities and malpractices’.