Mozambique Elections: Trial of Matola STAE officials scheduled for Tuesday

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Mozambique Elections: Trial of Matola STAE officials scheduled for Tuesday

7:59 CAT | 05 Oct 2023

Photo: O País

The trial before the Matola City Court in southern Mozambique of the local branch of the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE), has been postponed to next Tuesday, just one day before the municipal elections scheduled for 11 October.

According to a report in Thursday’s issue of the independent daily “O Pais”, the country’s main opposition party, Renamo, brought the case against the Matola STAE, accusing it of committing electoral crimes during the voter registration which ran from 20 April to 3 June.

Renamo lawyer, Saimone Macuiane said that in May Renamo had lodged its complaint with the Matola City Attorney’s Office. But only four months later, on the eve of the elections, was a trial date marked. The delay makes no sense, Macuiane said, since the general legal principle is that the courts must give priority to electoral offences before any other matters.

Although the case had been on his desk for months, the Matola judge, Mateus Pequenino, decided on a further delay, postponing the trial from Thursday, 5 October, to next Wednesday.

“We wanted the case to be closed in May so that those found guilty could be held responsible for their acts”, said Macuiane. “But that’s not what happened. The judge set a trial date of 17 October, but our request was considered reasonable, and he rescheduled for 10 October”.

Among Renamo’s accusations against the Matola branch of STAE are that buses of the Matola municipal bus company (ETPM) “were caught red-handed ferrying false voters from Moamba to the Matola C neighbourhood”.

Macuiane added that false voter cards were discovered, the names of false voters were added to the voter roll, and the STAE computer (known as a “mobile-ID”), which should never have left the voter registration post, was taken to the house of a block chief in Matola-C.

There are no municipalities in Moamba district, and so registering people from Moamba in Matola would be blatant fraud.

According to “O Pais”, Judge Pequenino has accepted the charges of the illicit movement of the STAE computer, the clandestine registration of voters and the transport of people from Moamba to register as voters in Matola.

Source: AIM