Mozambique top court confirms ruling party’s win in disputed election

Mozambique’s top court has confirmed the ruling party Frelimo’s victory in an October election which sparked massive protests by opposition groups who say the vote was rigged.

The Constitutional Council reaffirmed that Daniel Chapo, Mozambique’s ruling party candidate, was declared victor after securing more than 65 percent of the vote. The court’s decision revises down the National Election Commission’s (CNE) results in the days after the election which had Chapo with 71 percent of the vote. 

The party increased its majority in parliament.

The 47-year-old Chapo will officially take office in January. He will be the first President born after independence.

Opposition leader Venancio Mondlane claims the October 9 vote was rigged in favour of Frelimo and that a separate count shows he won enough votes to take the office.

During the election outside observers said the election was not free or fair. At the time European Union poll observers noted the “unjustified alteration”

The nation’s top court has the final say over the electoral process and its ruling is likely to spark further protests in Mozambique, a Southern African country of close to 35 million people which Frelimo has governed since independence from Portugal in 1975.

At least 130 people have been killed in clashes with police, according to the civil society monitoring group Plataforma Decide since October’s election.

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