Nampula polling stations fail to open on time – AIM report

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Nampula polling stations fail to open on time – AIM report

6:14 CAT | 24 Jan 2018

Twitter @ntatendana

Despite the months of preparation, and despite all assurances from election officials that everything was running smoothly, many polling stations in the northern city of Nampula failed to open on time for Wednesday’s mayoral by-election.

The 401 polling stations were due to open at 07.00, and polling station staff should have been in position, setting up the stations as from 05.00

But when a crew from the independent television station STV visited polling stations in the centre of the city shortly after 06.00, it found queues of voters but no polling station staff, and no explanation for the delays.

One voter told STV she had arrived at 04.00, and was resigned to continue waiting. Others did not hide their annoyance at the disorganisation shown by the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE), the executive arm of the National Elections Commission (CNE), which is responsible for running the polling stations.

At shortly after 07.00, STV reporter Francisco Mandlate was at the Sports Pavilion in central Nampula, where eight polling stations should operate. By then polling station staff had arrived, but they were still waiting for STAE-Nampula to bring all the necessary materials to open the stations. Some of them said they had spent the night at the STAE offices.

Still nobody bothered to tell the voters, standing in queues outside the pavilion, what had gone wrong, and why polling stations within walking distance from the STAE offices could not open on time.

O material de votação ainda não chegou na mesa 701 na Escola Secundária 12 de Outubro. Eleitores à espera. #Nampula https://t.co/i1wa80HARD pic.twitter.com/MiEzKV8bbh

— Ntatenda (@ntatendana) January 24, 2018

It had been feared that the torrential rains battering Nampula might affect the election – but the skies cleared on Tuesday, and there was no rain overnight.

There are about 296,000 registered voters in Nampula, and, judging by the size of the early morning queues, a good number of them are enthusiastic about exercising their right to vote. But some of them could drift away, if the delays continue, perhaps to return in the afternoon, perhaps not.

This is far from the first time the local STAE officials have displayed disorganisation, incompetence and lack of respect for the voters. If the past is anything to go by, nobody will lose their jobs over this poor performance.

The two opposition parties – Renamo and the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) – are eager to seize on such miserable failure as evidence of fraud supposedly perpetrated by the ruling Frelimo Party . But nowadays the opposition is deeply complicit in everything that goes wrong in Mozambican elections. There are political appointees from Frelimo, Renamo and the MDM at every level of the election commissions and of STA.E, and they cannot avoid a share of responsibility for the negligence that is so clearly evident in Nampula.

Parte de eleitores que recensearam na EPC de Napipine cujos nomes não constam dos cadernos existentes nas mesas. Os Técnicos do STAE e da CNE não conseguem dar uma explicação plausível.#Nampula #NampulaDecide pic.twitter.com/GHxlkrgEQ0

— Ntatenda (@ntatendana) January 24, 2018