Maputo, 9 May (AIM) – The Mozambican electoral bodies are trying to limit media coverage of the approaching municipal elections to journalists who have an official credential issued by the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE).
The NGO coalition, “Mais Integridade” (“More Integrity”), which is observing the current voter registration, noted, in a Monday release, that the demand for accreditation from STAE took effect in the second week of registration.
The National Elections Commission (CNE) has now confirmed that “only journalists who are duly accredited, or carry a credential issued by STAE, will be allowed to cover events or activities of the electoral bodies”. This appears to mean that even simple press conferences will be barred to reporters who do not have such a credential.
“Mais Integridade” warns that this “is a serious violation of freedom of the press and of the right to information”. For there is nothing in the Mozambican Constitution, or in the 1991 press law, which gives STAE the power to impose restrictions on media coverage.
On the contrary, the press law states that journalists have the right to free access to places where the exercise of their profession might be required, and they may not be detained, removed or otherwise prevented from carrying out their duties.
“Mais Integridade” notes that, during the second week, observers generally had free access to voter registration posts, and were granted the information needed for their tasks.
But there were “sporadic cases” of registration brigades or local election bodies trying to prevent access, even though the “Mais Integridade” observers are duly accredited. This obstruction occurred in at least one registration post in Nacala, and one on Mozambique Island, both in Nampula province.
At one post in the KaMavota municipal district in Maputo city, the observers were denied entry on the grounds that “the space is too small”. Occasionally time limits were placed on observation: thus in one post in Beira the observers were told they could only stay for an hour.
Nonetheless, observers from the coalition were able to make 813 visits to registration posts during the second week. They noted 19 cases of disturbances, caused mostly by the extreme slowness of the registration brigades.
This in turn was caused partly by equipment breakdowns, and partly by queue jumping. The brigades illicitly favoured “priority lists” ahead of people who had spent hours queing up. STAE has warned that such “priority lists” are illegal, but the practice is continuing.
Most of the posts visited by the observers were operational, but four per cent were closed at the time of the visits (the same percentage as during the first week). But the number of posts that had to close temporarily, due to lack of material, or technical problems with the equipment, rose from 20 per cent in the first week to 26 per cent in the second week.
STAE did not always react quickly to equipment breakdowns. Thus, at the Namegonha registration post, in Cuamba municipality, Niassa province, the printer did not function from the afternoon of 1 May to at least 14.00 on 2 May, when the observers visited. STAE had been informed, but no technical help arrived to fix the problem.
Similar problems with printers were reported in many other posts. Nonetheless, the coalition observers believed that the registration brigade members were showing better mastery of the equipment than in the first week.
The number of brigades observed who showed poor mastery of their machines fell from 10 per cent in the first week to three per cent in the second.
The number of voters whose data was computerized, but who could not receive their voter cards because of printer problems, rose from four per cent in the first week to 18 per cent in the second. In several cases, voters who had registered did not receive their cards for at least three days.
The observers found that the average time taken to register a voter was seven minutes, the same as in the first week. Queues continued to build up: in two thirds of the posts visited, potential voters were still in the queues at the official closing time of 16.00.
The observers saw 216 cases of citizens whose attempts to register were rejected – this was two per cent of all those who registered. In most cases this was because the would-be voters had no valid form of identification, or because they did not live in the area covered by the registration post.
The main political parties had monitors present at the great majority of the posts observed – the ruling Frelimo Party at 92 per cent of the posts, and the opposition parties Renamo and the MDM (Mozambique Democratic Movement) at 77 per cent and 55 per cent respectively.
In the two weeks of observation, “Mais Integridade” witnessed the registration of more than 18,600 voters, through 1,440 visits to 773 posts in 27 municipalities. This was 17 per cent of the 4,292 registration posts.
(AIM)
Pf/ (833)
