MDM calls for extended voter registration

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MDM calls for extended voter registration

7:50 CAT | 17 May 2018

Photo: Miramar

The General Secretary of the opposition Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), Jose Domingos, on Thursday called for an extension of the voter registration period, just hours before the registration posts were due to close.

Domingos, who was speaking in the northern city of Nampula, at the end of a week long visit to Nampula province, argued that an extension would compensate for the operational problems faced by registration brigades in various parts of the country.

“Registration should be prolonged for a few more days because there were places where, in the initial days, because of technical difficulties, or the way the brigade members were operating, many people were unable to register”, Domingos claimed. He blamed the electoral bodies themselves, the National Elections Commission (CNE) and its executive body, the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE). He alleged they had created “artificial problems” in some areas.

“There were areas where everything ran smoothly, without any problems. I think that’s where some forces believe they enjoy the support of potential voters”, he said. “I believe those who did this were the CNE and STAE, on the orders of somebody else, I don’t know who”.

Domingos left it to the last day to raise this demand. Registration began on 19 March and, even with the technical problems many brigades faced, the two month period should have been ample time for all citizens who wish to vote in the municipal elections scheduled for 10 October to do so.

The CNE had already made it very clear that 17 May is the last day of registration. Contacted by AIM today, CNE spokesperson Paulo Cuinica reaffirmed this. “The registration ends today”, he declared.

The three provinces where registration rates are particularly low have traditionally been regarded as strongholds, not of the opposition, but of the ruling Frelimo Party. They are Niassa, in the far north, and Maputo City and Province in the south which, by last Sunday, had registered only 62.65, 65.6 and 68.48 per cent respectively of their potential electorate.

Long queues have been reported at some Maputo registration posts. Cuinica guaranteed that anybody in the queues will be allowed to register, even if this means that the posts have to stay open beyond the normal closing time of 17.00.

Criminal behaviour was reported at some registration posts. According to the latest issue of the “Mozambique Political Process Bulletin”, published by the leading anti-corruption NGO, the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), in at least four posts in Nampula city, the registration brigades were demanding anything between 20 and 50 meticais (between 34 and 84 US cents) as a condition for registering voters. This abuse had been reported earlier in the month, and STAE had promised to stamp it out. But apparently it has continued.

Some brigades refused to work for a full day. Originally brigades were supposed to work from 08.00 to 16.00, but in the final week this was extended by two hours. However, the Bulletin found on 9 May that ten registration posts in Beira opened after 08.00 and closed before 16.00. Similar problems were reported from three posts in Nampula city.

Registration stopped altogether in Ribaue district, Nampula province, from 11 to 13 May, because of power cuts, and because fuel for the back-up generators ran out. At several posts in Milange district, Zambezia province, registration had to stop on certain days because the brigades ran out of registration forms, or in for the printers, or generator fuel.

In Mandimba district, in Niassa, which has the lowest registration rate of any district, equipment repeatedly failed after only an hour in some posts, and disappointed would-be voters gave up and went home.

Source: AIM