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Maputo, 13 Jul (AIM) – Mozambique’s National Elections Commission (CNE) has approved the results of the voter registration, held from 20 April to 3 June, despite strong evidence of serious illegalities in several provinces.
According to a report from the anti-corruption NGO, the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), CNE members appointed by the two opposition parties, Renamo and the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) urged that “ghost” voter registers found in Zambezia and Nampula provinces should be excluded from the final count.
The CNE majority did not accept that these registers might be fictitious. When a vote was taken, ten CNE members (aligned with the ruling Frelimo Party) voted in favour of the final figures presented by the CNE’s executive body, the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE), while the seven aligned with the opposition voted against.
The STAE report said that there was only consensus on the figures in six provincial elections commissions (Maputo city, Inhambane, Manica, Tete, Nampula and Cabo Delgado),
In the other five commissions (Maputo province, Gaza, Sofala, Zambezia and Niassa), the figures went to a vote and the Frelimo majority won.
At district level, the opposition rejected the results in Namaacha and Matola (Maputo province), in Xai-Xai, Bilene, Mandlakazi and Chokwe (Gaza), in Beira city (Sofala), in Quelimane, Mocuba and Alto Molocue (Zambezia), in Angoche, Ribaue, and Mossuril (Nampula), in Pemba (Cabo Delgado), and in Mandimba and Morrupa (Niassa).
The total number of voters registered, according to the STAE report, was 4,751,999 – which is 91 per cent of the 5.24 million adults of voting age (according to the National Statistics Institute, INE).
Several districts registered more than 100 per cent of the adults who, according to the INE, live there. Some of these figures are highly suspicious – such as the 155 per cent registered in Bilene, or the 172 per cent in Maganja da Costa, in Zambezia.
High registration figures in Cabo Delgado, however, (such as 194 per cent in Ibo, and 157 per cent in Mueda) may be due to population displacement during the fight against the islamist terrorists who have been active in the province since 2017.
On the basis of the registration figures, each municipal assembly is allocated a number of members. This has resulted in an increased size of almost all municipal assemblies.
Matola overtakes Maputo as the largest municipality. It has 645,994 registered voters compared to 631,170 in Maputo. There will now be 66 members in the Matola assembly, an increase of seven on the 59 elected at the last municipal elections, in 2018.
The Maputo assembly gains just one member, rising in size from 64 to 65.
The third largest municipality is Nampula, with 326,989 registered voters. Beira has 316,895 voters, and Chimoio has 209,053.
(AIM)
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