Parties complain of the costs and slowness of notaries – CIP Mozambique Elections

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Parties complain of the costs and slowness of notaries – CIP Mozambique Elections

1:44 CAT | 20 Jul 2023

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Miramar]

Political parties enjoy exemption from paying the costs of authenticating documents, but the notary offices are refusing to accept this right. Furthermore, during election periods, the notary offices suddenly find they need spend much of the day grappling with problems with their computer systems, which prevents parties from obtaining authentication of their documents in time. Complaints about this were made last Monday (17 July) to the National Elections Commission, during the session of presentation of information.

In the bureaucratic Mozambique system, the electoral law requires every candidate to submit a set of notarised documents. The parties call for a reduction in the requirements demanded, particularly for documentation, and think it is enough just to recognise the criminal record certificate. But that would require parliament to change the law.

According to the political parties, the notary services say they are not aware that the parties enjoy exemption from payment for the authentication of documents. They also ask the CNE to take a decision and distribute it to the parties, who can then take it to the notaries in order to benefit from the exemption.

In response, the National Elections Commission says it has already contacted the Ministry of Justice, which supervises the notarial services, to remind that institution of the need to exempt the political parties from payment when authenticating their documents required for participation in the municipal elections.

Many parties have their members in the districts and it will be extremely difficult to conclude the processing and transport of documents in useful time because of the poor conditions of the roads.

Source: Centro de Integridade Pública - CIP