U.S. Embassy
Avenida Kenneth Kaunda, 193
Caixa Postal, 783
Maputo
MOZAMBIQUE
PRESS RELEASE
Embassy Statement on Second Round of the Mayoral By-Election in Nampula
March 19, 2018 –We congratulate the people of the city of Nampula and the National Elections Commission for their participation in the second round of voting in the mayoral by-election on March 14. Based on the observations of the U.S. Embassy’s accredited election observers, the second round of voting appeared to be largely free, fair, and credible. These findings are consistent with the U.S. Embassy team’s observations from the first round of the by-election. We do not believe the few irregularities we did observe materially impacted the results.
Notably, we observed that the campaign and Election Day itself were generally peaceful and calm, media coverage was generally inclusive, and there were no instances of interference in campaign or voting activities. Efforts of civil society organizations to observe the campaign and election demonstrated the value of active civic engagement in Mozambique. We also commend the work of polling station staff, who again worked tirelessly and continuously from before the opening of the polls through the closing and counting procedures. We congratulate Mozambican security forces for the constructive role which they played in maintaining a calm and orderly atmosphere on Election Day and encourage all stakeholders and political parties to continue to preserve this environment, as electoral bodies finalize and certify the election results.
Our observations indicate that the National Election Commission is to be commended for the significant progress which it made in addressing technical and administrative problems related to polling procedures that arose in the first round of the by-election on January 24. We saw no evidence that any of the anomalies observed during the second round reflected any systematic issues sufficient to undermine the fundamental integrity of the election. We encourage the National Electoral Commission and other stakeholders, including political parties, to apply the lessons learned from the January 24 and March 14 elections to continue improving electoral procedures.
For more information about this press release, please contact the U.S. Embassy Maputo Press Office at MaputoPress@state.gov.
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