Mozambique: New STAE DG urged to focus on practical and less costly solutions – Watch

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Mozambique: New STAE DG urged to focus on practical and less costly solutions – Watch

8:41 CAT | 17 Oct 2022

New STAE director -general Lolo Correia. Chairperson of the National Electoral Commission (CNE), Reverend Dom Carlos Matsinhe (right)- [ Photo: Sala da Paz]

The chairperson of the National Electoral Commission (CNE), Dom Carlos Matsinhe, on Friday told the new director-general of the Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE), Loló Correia, to focus on practical and less costly solutions to conduct the next elections in Mozambique.

The next municipal elections come at a time when the country is facing a number of challenges such as terrorist attacks in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, Covid-19 pandemic and extreme weather events.

Therefore, Matsinhe urged Correia to ensure the adoption of the best strategies for conducting free, fair, transparent and credible municipal elections.

“We challenge you to take into account in your agenda practical and less costly solutions in the execution of electoral actions within the scope of mitigating the effects of natural disasters such as floods and cyclones, the Covid-19 pandemic and terrorism,” said Matsinhe, this Friday (14), in Maputo, during the swearing-in ceremony of Correia.

He recommended Correia to be guided by a high sense of transparency and accountability in all his acts.

In addition to the noble responsibility of ensuring the technical function of the electoral processes, Matsinhe challenged him to work towards bringing a permanent balance within that electoral body.

“We want you, on accepting this new challenge, be capable to build on the processes already started, cultivating professionalism, rigour and harmony within the institution you are going to lead,” he recommended.

In another development, Matsinhe instructed Correia to boost the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and combat misinformation through new platforms, such social media.

“We would like to recommend you to take advantage of information and communication technologies, as well as the need to find an antidote to combat the use of the same technologies to misinform, mainly concerning electoral matters,” he warned.

Loló Correia, for his part, pledged to proceed with the work carried out by his predecessor, Felisberto Naife, who decided to resign as STAE general director after 15 years.

As you know, there is a schedule of activities which were approved by the CNE. These instruments are being executed at this moment, this means that all the issues inherent to the preparation of the next elections are in progress, there are no delays and I will continue with the work that has already been done,” he said.

Correia should have been sworn in mid-September, but the defeated candidate, Helena Garrine, filed a complaint with the CNE’s legal commission, in which she pointed out alagded irregularities and illegalities during her election process.

The CNE’s legal commission in turn referred the case to the Administrative Court, who ruled on Correia’s favour.

Correia, who since 2014 was the provincial director of STAE in the western province of Tete, was elected with 10 votes, followed by Helena Garrine, the current national director of training and civic education at STAE, with only seven points.

STAE is the executive body of the CNE. The CNE takes the main decisions and STAE, represented in every Mozambican district during electoral periods, must implement them. In particular, STAE must organize the of voter registration and must run all the many thousands of polling stations needed on election day.