CIP Mozambique Elections: Polling station staff must work unpaid – otherwise election is illegal

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CIP Mozambique Elections: Polling station staff must work unpaid – otherwise election is illegal

6:55 CAT | 26 Sep 2024

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: CIP]

Law on Public Probity is clear: MMVs must work unpaid or polling stations will be illegal

Teachers and other civil servants cannot be paid polling station staff (MMVs, membros das mesas de voto), which means nearly all polling stations are illegal. The Law on Public probity (12/2024 art 33b) prohibits any “office holder or member of a public body [to] receive remuneration from other public institutions.” Although this is in the law as amended this year, it has been true for a decade and was also art 32 of the previous law (16/2012). MMVs are paid positions.

Paulo Cuinica, National Elections Commission (CNE) spokesperson, said Saturday that the CNE still does not have the money to pay the polling station staff. He was speaking in a phone-in programme on Radio Mozambique. That may be the solution – that MMVs must work unpaid.

The law (9/2014) establishing electoral administration says “the National Elections Commission is a state body” and the “Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration [STAE, Secretariado Técnico da Administração Eleitoral] is a public service”. So they are clearly not allowed to pay additional money to teachers and other government officials to be MMVs.

This restriction on MMVs has gone unnoticed or been ignored. But with the Frelimo push to have their people running all polling stations, Podemos looked and found they cannot be paid.

Public probity doesn’t matter

In all the districts, most members of the polling station staff are employees of the public administration, mostly school directors and teachers or other state employees.

At the Ehiline Basic School, Rapale, Nampula, the school director is also the director of the District Elections Commission (CDE), and the pedagogic director is working on the Frelimo election campaign. Pupils have practically no classes because the classrooms are occupied with the training of the MMVs (polling station staff, membros das mesas de voto). Many teachers are training to become MMVs.

In Zavala, Inhambane, almost 30 school directors and assistant directors are trainers, and a considerable number of teachers have been trained as MMVs.

In Tambara, Manica, Frelimo has occupied most of the 300 vacancies for MMVs, who should come from an open competition. But the majority work in the public administration.

In Derre, Zambézia, Júlio Cardoso Júlio, the director of the Namuno Basic School, and Guido Floriano Augusto, the pedagogic director from that school, are among the candidates chosen to fill MMV vacancies. Neither of them were interviewed, but they will be trained as MMVs, along with several teachers. They will be absent from their classes for 15 days.

In the Rapale Secondary School, Nampula, pupils are not in classes, because the teachers are trainers and others are training as MMVs. In Mossuril, on Monday (23 September) schools and classes were limited because most of the teachers were taking part in the MMV training. In Muecate, also in Nampula, the Metepo Basic School is completely closed, because directors and teachers are undergoing training to become MMVs.

80% of the MMVs in Alto Molocué, Zambézia, are teachers. This accusation comes from Otílio Muniquele, the Mayor of Alto Molócuè, who is working on the Renamo election campaign. Maniquele asked the teachers to stop the MMV training and return to their teaching jobs. He urged that they should give job opportunities to young unemployed people.

Teachers often make good polling station staff and returning officers. But in the last two decades education has become so politicised that teachers are under pressure to support Frelimo, and as polling station staff to ensure Frelimo wins. The public probity law now bars them from being MMVs. Last week the national office of STAE annulled the public tender for hiring provincial trainers of MMVs in Quelimane because there was evidence of manipulation to benefit the Frelimo Party.

Governor’s demand creates three way conflict – Frelimo member, trainer & school director

The District Director of Education in Mopeia, Zambézia, was asked to have school directors and other STAE district trainers to be in three places at once. He summoned them as Frelimo activists to receive Pio Matos, governor and candidate for re-election as head of the Frelimo list for the provincial elections, yesterday morning. But they are also MMV trainers who should be in training sessions Monday morning. And of course they should be in their schools. CIP Eleições has had access to the message sent by the district director, which we publish in full below. He compromised by saying that in the morning meeting between the directors and the Frelimo candidate, only the afternoon trainers should participate so as not to “cause confusion”.

“His Excellency, the governor of the province is here in Mopeia and tomorrow (Monday) he wishes to meet with school directors and their pedagogic directors at around 08.00/09.00. In this context, and since some of this group is undergoing training, I have been contacted to dispense everybody at this time from the meeting, which I do not think would be good, taking into account the current moment and process, because it has strong implications. Hence:

“Instead of everyone, I propose that the afternoon group participate in this activity (but carefully) so as not to draw the attention of the others, since it may allow people to leave the room to participate and return, which could cause confusion. To this end, I ask the trainers from the afternoon period to contact the school managers and their assistants, as well as the heads of the secretariats, for the period mentioned (the afternoon) so that at 08.00 they take part in the meeting. The trainers and trainees of the morning period should normally be in the classes”.

It is a mark of Frelimo’s control of the electoral process that the candidate for governor can simply convene a meeting with school directors.

Other news

Unknown assailants destroy PODEMOS sound system. Early on Monday morning (23 September) unknown individuals set fire to a pick-up truck carrying sound equipment of the PODEMOS party, which supports the independent presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane. The attack occurred in Mabote, Inhambane. The truck, carrying campaign equipment and materials, was set on fire at about 03.00, alongside the place where the PODEMOS delegation was staying.

Three serious injuries in Metangula. Two incidents on Monday (23 September) in Metangula, Niassa, resulted in serious injuries to man and a woman, who are now undergoing treatment in the provincial hospital in Lichinga. In the first case, the woman was pushed by a motor-cycle and fell, breaking her leg. In the second, a young man jumped out of a moving truck to recover his sandal, which had fallen off. The truck was carrying supporters of Frelimo to the rally held by its presidential candidate, Daniel Chapo, in Metangula. The local health centre confirmed a third injured person but gave no details.

Trials for election crimes. Five young supporters of PODEMOS, in Nacala-à-Velha, Nampula, are awaiting trial. They were all caught destroying Frelimo posters and were immediately taken to the police cells. They were heard by the local court on 23 September, and are awaiting the verdict.

Opposition parties banned. In the Nhanthuthu area, in Nhassacara locality, Báruè district, in Manica province, since the election campaign started, only Frelimo can be seen. The other parties are not allowed to campaign, and when they try, they receive death threats.

Source: Centro de Integridade Pública - CIP Eleições