Former President John Dramani Mahama, who is in Maputo, Mozambique to observe presidential, legislative and provincial elections, has presented a preliminary report.

Addressing the media on behalf of a team of observers deployed by the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA)Mr Mahama commended Mozambique for upholding democratic norms through the conduct of regular elections.

“Cognisant of the fact that the process is yet to be completed, the EISA EOM notes that Election Day procedures were carried out in a satisfactory manner,” He said of Thursday’s elections. 

The Election Observer Mission (EOM), however, faulted key aspects of the electoral process, such as the security, voter registration, campaigns and selective accreditation of citizen observers.

According to the report, these “posed challenges to the integrity of the elections.”

Four candidates including the incumbent President Filipe Nyusi contested the October 15 presidential elections, with over 13 million registered voters.

 The other candidates are Ossufo Momade of the Renamo Party, Daviz Simango of MDM and Mario Albino from the AMUSI party.

The preliminary report, a copy of which has been attached, has the following as some of its recommendations;

The parliament should consider further reforms to strengthen the institutional framework for election administration to make provincial and district structures accountable to the National Electoral Commission (CNE).

Further reforms should also be considered to harmonise the policy and technical arm of the election management body, preferably into one single independent body. 

The CNE-  Technical Secretariat for Election Administration (STAE) should stick to the statutory timelines for the disbursement of campaign funds to political parties.

The CNE-STAE should review the accreditation procedures for citizen observers to ensure timely, user-friendly and efficient consideration of accreditation requests.  

The CNE-STAE should establish a platform for stakeholder engagement to provide space for open consultation and promote the transparency of the electoral process.

The CNE should take steps to simplify and speed up the ballot reconciliation and counting process.

Political parties should take more deliberate steps to adopt affirmative actions to promote the participation of women, youth and persons with disability.

 The EOM recommends that the Police continue to build the levels of stakeholder trust through enhanced professionalisation.

 There must be greater transparency in future voter registration exercises.  

Read the full report.