Renamo wins Nampula by- election

THE candidate of the opposition party Renamo, Paulo Vahanle, has won the second round of the mayoral by-election in the northern city of Nampula, which was held recently. With results sheets from most of the 401 polling stations counted, Vahanle had around 59 per cent of the vote and his

Frelimo opponent, Amisse Cololo, 41 per cent. These figures come from the parallel count done by the election observers, and both Frelimo and Renamo accept that they are accurate. The official results are expected to be announced by the Nampula District Elections Commission shortly.

In the first round, held on 24 January, Cololo won 32 042 votes (44,51 per cent), while Vahanle took 29 029 (40,32 per cent). The rest of the votes were distributed among three other candidates. Because no candidate won over 50 per cent of the vote, a second round was necessary by law.

Two factors seem to account for Vahanle’s victory. First, the Mozambique Democratic Movement ( MDM), which won 10.1 of the vote in January, threw its weight behind Vahanle and campaigned for him.

Secondly, there was a significantly higher turnout in the second round than in January - about 32,8 per cent of the 296 590 registered voters cast ballots, compared with only 24,9 per cent on 24 January.

The second round was much better organised than the first. On 24 January, no less than 43 per cent of the polling stations failed to open on time (7 am), and some opened over two and a half hours later.

But this time, 96,3 per cent of the polling stations opened on time. In the remaining stations, the election kits were found to be incomplete, and the Nampula branch of the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat ( STAE) had to supply the missing material.