Balance of voter registration so far: 15 days marked by irregularities and problems | CIP Mozambique Elections

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Balance of voter registration so far: 15 days marked by irregularities and problems | CIP Mozambique Elections

7:00 CAT | 09 May 2023

Image: CIP Eleiçóes

Our 200 correspondents spread across the country agree that the first 15 days of registration were characterised by problems. Those that stand out are constant breakdowns of the Mobile ID computers and the printers, priority given to government employees in registration, slowness in attendance, mobilisation of people to register in municipal areas, clandestine printing of voter cards, and voter cards with serious problems.

In these first two weeks, the Lexton/Artes Gráficas consortium, hired for importing and maintaining the registration equipment, showed a notorious incapacity to place technical staff to solve problems in record time. Some brigades continued to spend days unable to print cards. There are suspicions that some of the equipment was reconditioned and not new, because it suffered breakdowns as from the first day.

But there are provinces where the machines are responding positively. In Sofala, Tete and Gaza, our correspondents have reported few cases of breakdowns. The same cannot be said of the northern zone, and of Maputo City and Province.

When the business of the registration machines was awarded directly, without a tender, the electoral administration bodies justified it and transmitted the idea that the consortium had successful experiences in various countries such as Ghana, and that it uses good quality equipment to register voters. The first 15 days have shown a different reality. That’s the price of directly awarding contracts. When there are public tenders, at least there is competition for the best bid, which ends up benefitting the contracting party, in this case the State.

In general, the first 15 days were characterised by:

Constant breakdown of the mobile ID machines and their respective printers

Printers that do not recognise the face and fingerprints of elderly people and albinos

Printing of voter cards by district STAEs without the presence of political party monitors

Voter cards with bad quality photographs, with stains, sometimes without writing, and without signatures or fingerprints

Slowness in attending to voters due to lack of skills in handling the machines, which makes some voters abandon the queues

Larger crowds queueing in the centre and north, resulting in voters waiting since early morning to register, while in the south the size of the crowds is variable (large, medium, or small), depending on the zones