The head of the legislative, municipal and regional electoral observation mission of São Tomé and Príncipe said Tuesday that she expected the São Tomé electoral commission to release the provisional results by district and said she was concerned about signs of post-electoral tension.
“We hope that the electoral commission will make public the provisional results by district because that will surely make the process more transparent for all of whom we do not have official knowledge,” said MEP Maria Manuel Leitão Marques, at the presentation of the preliminary report. of the electoral observation mission of the European Union (EU) in the capital of São Tomé.
The official pointed out that the results announced so far are provisional.
Same as yesterday [segunda-feira]the number of votes per party [divulgados pela Comissão Eleitoral Nacional] they were also interim results,” he said.
The National Electoral Commission (CEN) “must, as soon as possible, reveal the results by district, at least, and by electoral college, if possible,” he advocated.
Asked about the delay in the publication of the first results, which only occurred about 30 hours after the polls closed, Maria Manuel Leitão Marques acknowledged that it was “a somewhat long process”, but pointed out that there were three simultaneous elections and that there was a “need to rigorously verify the results of the different polling stations.”
“We will probably appreciate the reasons and if we can make any recommendations of a purely technical nature to speed up the process,” he said.
Asked about signs of tension in the post-election period, with criticism from Acción Democrática Independiente (ADI), which boasted of winning in the legislature, for the delay of almost 30 hours in the publication of the provisional results of the CEN and for the lack of discrimination of the data by district and the mandates in the National Assembly obtained by each party, the official admitted “concern”.
“Concern, of course, I would not lie to you, we always have it,” said the head of the European mission.
The electoral process, he stressed, “was developed in a peaceful and orderly manner” and election day “in general was also developed in a peaceful and orderly manner and following international standards, with transparency”, which deserves “a globally positive assessment”, although they may be necessary to correct “some situations”.
It is natural that the delay generates some nervousness, people are always hoping to receive the results faster, but it is not up to me to recommend any particular attitude to the political parties, they will know what to do. I wish that everything continues to pass in peace and that the confidence of the citizens of São Tomé in the final result is maintained”, added Maria Manuel Leitão Marques.
Asked if the EU observation mission will monitor the final tabulation process, the official said that was the expectation.
“We hope so, that is the expectation of what we signed with the Government of São Tomé. According to international standards, the process must be public and transparent”, she underlined.
The president of the CEN, José Carlos Barreiros, announced on Monday night the total number of voters of each of the 11 parties and movements that competed in the legislative elections last Sunday, but without specifying how many seats were assigned to each.
Nor did he indicate the result by district, referring this information to a subsequent publication on the official CEN page, but which had not yet occurred until Tuesday afternoon.
The president of the CEN affirmed that some parties have already presented their projections (namely, the ADI and the MLSTP) and that “there are divergences”, for which he sent the distribution of seats to the Constitutional Court.
Source: Observadora
