Voting has started in Nampula by-election – Mozambique

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Voting has started in Nampula by-election – Mozambique

11:17 CAT | 24 Jan 2018

The art of early queuing in Nampula this morning: eager voters lined up stones in queues at this polling centre to mark their positions. Photo: Twitter @tomqueface

The majority of polling stations for the municipal by-election in Nampula, northern Mozambique, opened today without incident, sources say.

Mozambican Television (TVM) reported shortly after 7:00 a.m., the scheduled start of voting, that an polling station in the Escola Primária Completa of Napipine had failed to open because of lack of Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE) personnel, although voters were already queuing up.

Processo de votação interrompido na Assembleia de voto da Escola Primária de Napipine. A interrupção deve-se ao facto de nos cadernos eleitorais não constarem os nomes dos eleitores com cartão para votar nesta mesa, criando assim um ambiente de tensão. #Nampula pic.twitter.com/zu0ubdKYHl

— Ntatenda (@ntatendana) January 24, 2018

Early mobilisation was verified by the media in other places, where the citizens had started arriving two-and-a-half hours before the opening of the polls.

Alberto Luis, a spokesman for the National Election Commission (CNE) in Nampula province, told TVM that the rain that fell overnight in the wake of last week’s inclement weather may have disrupted the work of some teams, besides making it more difficult to access some of the 54 polling stations, as in Nahene.

Na mesa 03001705 localizada na Escola Secundária 12 de Outubro não existe cabine de votação. Os Membros de Mesa de Voto (MMC) improvisam com capulanas para iniciar o processo. #Nampula pic.twitter.com/goBA3kqYCQ

— Ntatenda (@ntatendana) January 24, 2018

The municipality has seen heavy rain destroy infrastructure, without further precipitation forecast today, albeit lighter.

Other sources covering the poll also told Lusa that there were delays in some places at the beginning of the vote, but these were seen as normal.

The CNE appealed on Tuesday for voters to vote as early as possible.

The polls are open until 6:00 p.m., with 296,590 registered voters and five candidates on the ballot papers.

The three parties with a parliamentary seat, Frelimo, Renamo and MDM, join the Amusi movement and the Humanist Party in seeking to succeed Mahamudo Amurane, the Nampula mayor who was shot dead at the door of his house on October 4.

The government has decreed a special holiday in the municipality to help voters get to the polling stations timeously.

Source: Lusa