Mozambique's highest appeals body has rejected the main opposition's challenge against the ruling Frelimo party's victory in last December's elections, saying the case was lodged too late. The Constitutional Council's decision, dated Jan. 15 and published on Monday, clears the way for it to validate the victory of Armando Guebuza who will succeed outgoing President Joaquim Chissano. The southern African country's electoral commission had already dismissed the opposition Renamo party's demands for a rerun of the December election. Renamo had cited the exclusion of votes from 640 polling stations -- or nearly 640,000 voters -- from the presidential count. But the electoral commission said that even if all those votes were for Renamo's Afonso Dhlakama it would not close a gap of more than 1 million votes between the two candidates. "The time to appeal closed on (Jan.) 7, while the appeal was submitted to this Constitutional Council on 10, manifestly out of time," the Constitution Council said in its statement on Monday. Businessman Guebuza won the election with 63.74 percent of votes against 31.74 percent for Dhlakama. Frelimo took 62 percent of the parliamentary votes, giving it 160 of the 250 seats. Renamo won 90 seats.
