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Two more clandestine registration posts, MDM demands prosecution of STAE director in Beira and other news | CIP Mozambique Elections
10:19 CAT | 16 May 2023
FILe - For illustration purposes only [File photo: Screen grab /Jornal Nota Diaria- JND]
- Clandestine night registration posts in Tete and Maganja da Costa
Monitors from Renamo and the MDM discovered, on Sunday night (14 May), two clandestine voter registration posts. In Tete they found a post in the house of a community leader. When questioned, the brigade members said they were told to work in this house because the school where they were supposed to register was too far away. (video)
Another post was installed in an abandoned house, in the Muanhula neighbourhood, in Maganja da Costa town, in Zambézia province. Brigade members said they were registering voters on the instruction of leaders of the electoral bodies.
Linked to the same case, a citizen from Mocubela district, outside of the municipal area, is in the hands of the Mozambican police (PRM), because he had allegedly come to register in Maganja da Costa district, together with some colleagues who are now fugitives. He refused to give the location of his colleagues or reveal who had sent them.
Today (16 May) the political delegate and provincial election agent of Renamo are visiting Maganja da Costa to ascertain the facts.
- MDM demands prosecution of the STAE director in Beira for secret WhatsApp group
The Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) on Sunday (14 May) submitted a complaint against the Director of STAE in Beira, Nelson Carlos do Rosário, and his chief of election operations, Cassamugi Tatua. The MDM asked the Beira attorney’s office to detain Rosario immediately because he had set up a WhatsApp group which is coordinating the manipulation of the voter registration.
The WhatsApp group includes all the Beira supervisors, and the director uses this platform to instruct the members to slow down the registration, so that only 40 people are registered a day, and not the 130 envisaged as the target. The idea is not to meet the desired target, thus leaving many opposition supporters off the voter rolls.
The MDM spokesperson, who is also the head of the MDM group in the Sofala provincial assembly, Maria Virgínia, said that the lengthy queues at the registration posts are the work of the supervisors following orders from the director of STAE, with the purpose of not registering opposition members and sympathisers.
Virgínia said she hopes that justice is done against this STAE director, and that he is immediately sacked.
Contacted by our Bulletin, Nelson do Rosário instructed his office assistant to tell us that he is not prepared to receive us and thus refused to react to the accusations against him.
The denunciation by the MDM seems to be resulting in an improvement in the registration. This Monday (15 May), at several registration posts. we noted that the queues were moving quickly. For example, at the Ponta-Gea, Sansao Mutemba and Estoril ESGs, and the Agostinho Neto and Eduardo Mondlane EPCs, the registration was going ahead very speedily, much to the satisfaction of the voters.
- Registration post has not functioned for two weeks in Chire, Morrumbala
For two weeks the voter registration post at the Bolde EPC, in the Chire adminstrative post, in Morrumbala district, Zambézia province, has not been operational, and no clear explanation has been given to the voters.
It is assumed that there has been a breakdown of the equipment since 2 May. The problem was confirmed by Filipe Njaze, a brigade member allocated to that registration post, who said that for about two weeks the machine has not been working because of a breakdown.
According to Njaze, the problem was reported to the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE) at district level immediately on 2 May, but so far there is no solution in sight.
This voter registration post is in an area where access is difficult because of the state of the roads. The most accessible route obliges the staff to enter via Malawi.
- Printer out of order since 28 April
A breakdown of the printer allocated to the voter registration brigade in Marrenco, in the Megaza administrative post, in Morrumbala, is worrying local residents.
The printer has not been working since 28 April – that is, it has not been printing voter cards for two weeks.
In conversations with the brigade members, they say that their superiors know about the problem. Currently they can only capture and register the voters’ data.
The population is now losing interest. The few who have registered fear they will not receive their voter cards. The daily average of voters going to the post has fallen drastically, because some residents say there is no difference between registering and not registering.
On 1 May, the printer was taken to Morrumbala town to be repaired. Three days later it was brought back, but the problem remains – it does not print
Source: Centro de Integridade Pública - CIP
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