Eleicoes autarquicas, votacao. Foto de Ferhat Momade.
Maputo, 10 Dec (AIM) – Police in the municipality of Marromeu, in the central Mozambican province of Sofala, on Sunday morning detained the chairperson of a polling station accused of electoral fraud.
In the municipal elections held on 11 October, fraud was so serious in Marromeu that the Constitutional Council, the country’s highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law, ordered the election to be repeated in the entire municipality.
But the polling station staff who colluded in the October fraud were hired again to run the repeat election, despite angry protests from the opposition parties, Renamo and the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM).
Clearly they were right to protest – for at one polling station, the chairperson, named only as Marcelino, was caught handing two extra ballot papers, marked in advance in favour of the ruling Frelimo Party, to the very first voter in the queue.
According to a report on the independent television station STV, the attempted fraud was spotted by the Renamo and MDM polling station monitors.
When he saw that he had been spotted, the chairperson first put the extra ballot papers in his pocket. Then under pressure from the monitors and other voters, he tore up the fraudulent ballots and threw them out of the window.
That did not satisfy the protestors, who demanded that “Marcelino” be removed. The police then detained him and took him to the Marromeu district police command.
At another polling station a policeman tried to cast a vote. The MDM monitor, Marcia Tome, said the policeman claimed he had registered as a voter at that station. The polling station chairperson backed up this false claim.
But when the voter roll was checked, his name was found not to be on it. When his voter card was inspected (which the staff should have done before giving him a ballot paper), it turned out that he was registered, not in Marromeu, but in Beira. Despite this, he was allowed to vote
“What kind of elections are these?”, exclaimed a disgusted Marcia Tome.
The civil society election observation consortium, “Mais Integridade” (“More Integrity”), found that its work was illegally obstructed in Marromeu. In two other municipalities where there were repeat elections, Nacala and Gurue, the consortium could observe the start of voting in all polling stations, but in Marromeu the observers found obstacles thrown in their path.
According to a “Mais Integridade” statement, in some case, polling station chairpersons rejected the credentials issued by the Sofala Provincial Elections Commission and demanded instead credentials from the Marromeu district branch of the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE) (even though the provincial commission is a much higher body than a district STAE).
In other cases, the chairpersons said they had instructions not to allow the observers to remain permanently at the polling stations – an instruction for which there is no justification in the law.
In Gurue, according to ”Mais Integridade”, an attempt at ballot box stuffing in favour of Frelimo was discovered. A voter was found with two ballot papers marked in advance for Frelimo. Angry opposition supporters attacked him, and the police then detained him. The polling station chairperson was replaced.
(AIM)
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