Mozambican president nods foreign observers' access to whole election process

Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano has told the National Elections Commission (CNE) to allowforeign observers to oversee the whole elections scheduled for December, local media reported on Wednesday.

He told reporters on Tuesday that he had instructed the CNE to accommodate the requests from the European Union (EU).

CNE spokesperson Filipe Mandlate said Monday that the CNE wouldnot allow the foreign observers to oversee all the stages of the vote count in the presidential and parliamentary elections.

In the negotiations for a memorandum of understanding on observation, the EU sought access to all stages of the count, not only to the polling stations.

In view of the accusations of malpractice in the vote tabulation in the previous elections the EU made request to observe the entire process from beginning to end, including being present in the rooms where the results sheets from the polling stations are tabulated into provincial results, and finally into anational result.

The Johannesburg-based Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA) has warned that failure to allow observers to monitor all stages of the elections would "definitely reflect on the credibility of the poll."

Source: Xinhua