Court says major fraud in Maputo proven; Confirmation that results cannot be challenged - CIP ...
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Mozambique’s Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE) has announced that, in the first week of voter registration ahead of the municipal elections scheduled for 10 October, 647,639 citizens registered.
This is 7.6 per cent of STAE’s registration target of 8.5 million voters.
Announcing the figure in Maputo on Monday, STAE spokesperson Claudio Langa said that all the registration brigades are now operating, and the average time it takes to register a voter has fallen from 10 minutes on the first day (19 March) to four minutes now.
Langa believed the figures for the first week were satisfactory, particularly considering that it had been raining in many places, which might have discouraged citizens from visiting the registration posts.
The registration continues until 17 May, and the registration posts are open from 08.00 to 16.00 every day. Langa urged citizens to register, and warned that the previous voter cards, issued in 2013 and 2014, are no longer valid.
A summary of the initial days by the international NGO EISA (Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa), which is observing the registration at the invitation of the National Elections Commission (CNE), was less positive than Langa.
The 11 EISA observers found that the vast majority of the posts observed (88.4 per cent) did indeed open on time on the first day, but this dropped to 80.4 per cent on subsequent days, due mainly to problems with the equipment.
During the observation 34 per cent of the posts visited by EISA suffered some kind of interruption. Usually the interruptions lasted at most for several hours. But in two cases (in Mocuba, in Zambezia province, and in Gorongosa, in Sofala) the stoppage lasted “for two or more days”.
The interruptions were mostly caused by problems with printers, and with sources of electricity. In Nampula city, two posts had to stop work because they ran out of registration forms. More people than expected went to the posts in the first week – perhaps encouraged by the experience of the mayoral by-election in the city a few days earlier.
EISA noted that the atmosphere at the registration posts was generally calm and orderly. The police were on hand, but their presence was generally discreet. The major exception to this was the municipality of Mocimboa da Praia in the northern province of Cabo Delgado: because of the recent attacks by islamists in Mocimboa da Praia, the police presence in this area was much more visible.
EISA noted that the registration brigades consisted mostly of young people, and 53 per cent of them were women. In 95 per cent of the posts observed the brigades showed good mastery of the equipment and the procedures.
But EISA noted some inconsistency in inserting data concerning the place of residence of the future voters. This worried the CNE enough for it to issue an instruction that all the fields in the form concerning place of residence must be completed. This could be critical for ensuring that only residents of the municipalities vote during the municipal elections.
While the brigades generally stressed that voters should cast their ballots in October, only a few told them that the electoral registers will be on display between 19 and 22 May, so that voters can check that their name is indeed on the register. If their names have somehow been omitted, citizens will not be allowed to vote in October.
EISA found that at all the registration posts observed at least some of the political parties had monitors watching proceedings. The ruling Frelimo Party was present at 91.5 per cent of the posts, the rebel movement Renamo at 86 per cent, and the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) at 61 per cent.
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