Riyaz Patel
Mozambique’s main opposition party Renamo has appealed the result of the October 15 poll, calling on the country’s top court to annul incumbent President Filipe Nyusi’s victory.
Nyusi and his ruling Frelimo party won big in the election, and it was hoped the election could set the seal on a fragile peace pact, designed to put a definitive end to four decades of violence between Frelimo and Renamo.
Instead, the contested result has stoked divisions as opposition parties have cried foul.
“We want the election results to be annulled because they were not elections. They were a caricature, a circus show,” Venâncio Mondlane, a Renamo representative, told Reuters.
“Today we filed the appeal to the Constitutional Council (CC) against the deliberation of the National Election Commission, which we do not agree with. We demand that the CC annul the election results,” Mondlane said.
Frelimo and Renamo fought a bitter 16-year civil war that ended in a truce in 1992 but have clashed sporadically since.
Renamo hoped to win control of a number of provinces in Mozambique’s centre and north but came away empty handed.
