Mozambique Elections: Police killed at least seven during post-election protests - AIM
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The Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), a Mozambican civil society organisation, says that the country’s electoral bodies are still predominantly distrusted by the opposition, citing the Nampula municipality as an example.
Speaking to Lusa, CIP investigator Borges Nhamire, says that he verified in an analysis for the NGO that representatives of opposition political parties in the Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE) in Nampula province may not have had access to relevant information before the first round of the by-election in the city on January the 24th.
“The STAE provincial directors are not legally obliged to report to the representatives of the political parties, channelling information directly to the director general of STAE,” Nhamire said.
Representatives of opposition political parties complained that they were surprised by the release of computerised electoral rolls containing bugs and empty and corrupted folders, Borges Nhamire said.
“This situation shows that the STAE deputy directors and opposition members in the provincial election commissions are not taken into account,” Nhamire claims.
The decision-making process in electoral bodies is marked by mistrust and is not participatory, he added.
Nampula residents in northern Mozambique will elect a new mayor on 14 March, after no candidate won more than half of the vote in the first round of voting.
Elections in Nampula: Renamo accuses Frelimo of irregularities / Frelimo says Renamo “is desperate”
In his analysis of the lack of confidence in the electoral bodies, the CIP also warns of a contradiction in relation to the date of the beginning of the census for the October 10 municipal elections.
According to the CIP, a Council of Ministers decree sets the 19th of the month for the beginning of the electoral census, but a statement released to the media by the government secretariat sets the date of the operation for the 17th.
“Naturally, the Council of Ministers date prevails, so the census starts on March 19, but it is a question that must be addressed by the competent bodies, because it confuses the electorate,” Nhamire told Lusa.
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