CIP Mozambique Elections: 1.8mn register in first 10 days

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CIP Mozambique Elections: 1.8mn register in first 10 days

9:25 CAT | 03 May 2023

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Belinha Manuel Antonio/Facebook]

1.8 million register in first 10 days

Registration during the first ten days, through Saturday, was 1.8 mn, which is 18% of the target of 9.9 mn, STAE (Secretariado Técnico de Administração Eleitoral) told a press conference yesterday (2 May). There are 3,192 brigades, registering an average of 180,805 citizens per day, which is 57 people per day. Registration is highest in Gaza – 29% of the target – and lowest in three provinces which have high opposition support – Nampula, Tete and Zambézia have registered only 15% of the target. More women have registered than men – 947,637 women compared to 860,416 men.

STAE accepts there were initial problems with computers and printers, but said today that all registration posts are open and problems are “drastically reduced” . But reports from our correspondents in all municipalities disagree. A few posts they visited were not open or not operational. And card printers remain a major problem – correspondents report posts that have not printed cards in the past three or four days. Our correspondents report at least one fifth of registration posts with supply or technical problems, mainly card printing.

The card printing problem was so serious in Gurue and Chiúre that STAE moved printing equipment to its warehouses and printed cards overnight. This caused a huge protest because it meant electoral processes were being carried out without party and civil society observers and without the knowledge of the parties, and it was alleged that cards were being printed for people who had not registered, to be used to vote for Frelimo. Instructions were issued that all registration activities must be done in registration posts during the opening hours, 08.00 to 16.00. But the director-general of STAE and other officials are in Zambézia today investigating.