Nampula: Disorganisation, late polling station openings, with low turnout – Hanlon

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Nampula: Disorganisation, late polling station openings, with low turnout – Hanlon

2:35 CAT | 24 Jan 2018

Ceramica primary school, 8.30.

Many polling stations failed to open this morning in the Nampula mayoral by-election. Voting was supposed to start a 7 am, but by 8.30 many polling stations still had not received voting materials – ballot boxes, etc. Some polling stations received the wrong voters register book and could not open. The disorganization occurred despite the presence of top election officials and party representatives at all levels of the electoral system.

Turnout was mixed, with few people at some polling stations and no queues remaining after the first hour, while others had longer queues. Turnout in the 2013 municipal elections was only 26%, and the short queues point to a similar turnout today.

At Mutauanha primary school at 08.30 there were long queues and most polling stations had not opened; voters were becoming impatient and angry. (see photo)

But at polling station 03000105 at Instituto Industrial e Comercial de Nampula, with 556 voters on the register, a party scrutineer at 9.30 said only 10 people had voted, and there was no one waiting to vote.

Ceramica primary school has 13 polling stations, and by 8.30 there was no queue at five of them. (See photo above)

There has been no new registration since the 2014 national elections and some people have lost their voters card. They can still vote if they have a photo ID card but they have to find their name on the register book. The voters card has the register book and polling station number, but if the voter does not have their card, they must go around the school going to each classroom (which serves as a polling station) to see if they are on the register book.