The European Union has described as “astonishing” the extent of vote-rigging in last October’s elections in Mozambique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In their final report, published on Wednesday, EU observers gave a withering assessment of the polls, saying they found fraud at almost every stage of the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The election – meant to help cement a peace deal in the southern African nation – was won by the governing Frelimo party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The EU was especially critical of irregularities in opposition strongholds, which it said benefitted Frelimo and its candidates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Mozambican electoral commission’s competence and credibility were not just questioned by the EU, but ridiculed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But as damning as this final report may be, it seems unlikely to make any immediate difference to the political landscape in Mozambique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
African observer missions, and heads of state, have already given the election results and winners their blessing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A successful legal challenge – as seen recently in neighbouring Malawi – is considered unlikely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But there are risks for Mozambique. It’s only months since a peace deal was signed to put a final end to decades of civil war. An Islamist insurgency is growing in the north.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A seriously tainted election victory seems unlikely to ease tensions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The European Union has described as “astonishing” the extent of vote-rigging in last October’s elections in Mozambique. In their final report, published on Wednesday, EU observers gave a withering assessment of the polls, saying they found fraud at almost every stage of the process. The election – meant to help cement a peace deal in the southern African nation –… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4095"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4096,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4095\/revisions\/4096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}