CIP Mozambique Elections: Whistle blowers jailed, disciplined

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CIP Mozambique Elections: Whistle blowers jailed, disciplined

10:30 CAT | 15 May 2023

Screen grab: Youtube

Election officials want to discipline Gurué whistleblowers

The deputy director and two assistant heads of the STAE Organisation and Elections Operations Departments (ROOE), all from the opposition parties (Renamo and the MDM), could be subjected to disciplinary proceedings for “proven insubordination and incitement to violence”. They should be disciplined for revealing the secret printing of voters cards on the night of 27 April in Gurué in a STAE warehouse. (See this newsletter 28 Apr,)

This suggestion arises in two reports. The first is a report from the consultation which was headed by the Deputy President of the Zambézia Provincial Elections Commission, Orlando Mote. The second is from a Multi-Sector Commission of six members, only one of whom is from the opposition (Isabel Guirugo, representing the MDM).

Although the report recognises that this procedure is not advisable because nobody from the opposition was present, it did not make any recommendation on this aspect. The head of the ROOE “recognises that he made a mistake by not involving the deputy department heads from the opposition”, according to the report to which we have had access.

Above all, the report shows that there is a bad environment resulting from a lack of communication between the district director of STAE and the STAE members from the opposition. “The fundamental problem which creates all this malaise is the lack of communication between the district director of STAE and the staff members indicated by the political parties, particularly those who came from the opposition parties, namely from Renamo and the MDM”, says the report.

The report confirms that the relationship between the members of the electoral bodies “is precarious”, which has worsened the climate of distrust around the printing of voter cards.

Gurué whistleblower detained illegally for 5 days

BThe Mozambican police (PRM) in Guruè on Thursday (11 May) released a monitor from the party AMUSI (Action of the United Movement for Salvation), Guedes Rui Suandique Portugal, who had been detained last Friday (5 May) for allegedly disturbing the voter registration. Guedes Portugal spent six days in the prison cells without his detention being legalised, and without any criminal case against him being opened.

The victim, now at liberty, said he was taken to the cells because he had denounced the abandonment of his post by a data input operator at the voter registration post in the Nacuacue EPC, where Guedes Portugal had been placed by his party. According to Portugal, the Gurue STAE director and the chairperson of the District Elections Commission (CDE) obliged him to rewrite the report previously submitted by the team of MDM and AMUSI monitors, to deny that the data input operator had been absent from the post. Portugal tells his story in this video.

Portugal says he lived through dark days in the PRM cells in Gurué, and witnessed repeated violations of human rights in that place which was his bitter home for five days.

Our Bulletin tried several times to hear the version of the Guruè electoral management and administration bodies, but without success. They always promised to react, but never did.

Background: History of fighting dirty in Gurué

Results have always been close in Gurué between MDM and Frelimo, and there is a history of misconduct. In the 2018 municipal elections a CIP Election Bulletin Study showed that 2/3 of polling stations were suspicious, with serious misconduct on both sides. In 2013 the Constitutional Council (CC) did its own investigation and found “flagrant violations of the law by polling station staff as well as the Zambézia Provincial Elections Commission”. Editais (official polling station results sheets) had been altered, some on instruction of the Zambézia Provincial Election Commission (CPE) and some were actually written by the CPE. In 2013 the National Election Commission gave the victory to Frelimo but the parallel count showed MDM had won. The CC cancelled the election and MDM won the rerun.

Source: Centro de Integridade Pública - CIP