Voting calm, but many voters denied right to vote

Maputo, 12 Oct (AIM) – Although the atmosphere in the vast majority of polling stations was calm, during Mozambique’s municipal elections held on Wednesday, in an alarmingly large number of stations, voters were prevented from casting their votes.

The “Mais Integridade” (“More Integrity”) electoral coalition, which had about 2,000 observers stationed in 30 of the country’s 65 municipalities, said that the environment was calm in 96 per cent of the stations observed.

But, in its statement on the voting, “Mais Integridade” noted that in 17 per cent of the stations some voters were prevented from voting. This happened all over the country, and in every province except Inhambane and Tete.

The excuses given for refusing citizens their right to vote was that their names could not be found on the voter roll, or that they were not in possession of a valid voter card.

Thus the polling station staff (MMVs) deliberately ignored the instruction given by the National Elections Commission (CNE) two days earlier, which declared that anyone with a voters card can vote, and anyone on the voters roll can vote. This was announced by the Chairperson of the CNE, Bishop Carlos Matsinhe, and then confirmed in a special order issued to the provincial directorates of the CNE’s executive body, the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE), by the STAE General Director, Lolo Correia.

This was an attempt by the CNE to circumvent the various irregularities that had marred the voter registration held from 20 April to 3 June, which included downright tampering with the voter roll by some staff, whereby the names of genuine voters were removed, and replaced by others.

Matsinhe declared “Those who have lost their voter cards should go and vote tomorrow. It is enough that they go to the voting sites where they registered, bringing with them any kind of identification document that bears a photograph”.

But the observers found that, in a significant minority of polling stations, the instructions from the CNE and STAE were ignored.

“Mais Integridade” even found that in some stations, notably in Ribaue municipality, in Nampula province, the station chairperson personally selected which citizens without a voter card would be allowed to vote.

In 15 per cent of the stations observed, voting was interrupted for some time. In some cases this was due to suspicions of the authenticity of the voter roll. The voter roll at the polling station was not always the same as the copies in the possession of the political parties. This led party monitors to halt the voting in eight municipalities (Cuamba, Lichinga, Chiure, Mozambique Island, Nampula, Gurue, Mocuba and Chimoio).

Cases of outright fraud, in the shape of ballot papers already marked in favour of Frelimo and left in the voting booths, were detected in Nampula, Beira, Alto Molocue and Gurue. This led to interruptions, since the party monitors insisted on checking that the booths were clean.

“Mais Integridade” added that some voters were found in possession of pre-marked ballot papers in municipalities in Nampula and Zambezia provinces.

Some interruptions were due merely to polling station chairpersons absenting themselves for lunch – even though the stations were supposed to be open, without interruption, from 07.00 to 18.00.

Although the electoral legislation allows observers to be present in the rooms where the polling stations function, in most of the stations observed this legal provision was ignored, and the observers were thrown out so that they could not watch the voting.

(AIM)

Pf/ (583)