
Maputo, 10 Mar (AIM) – Mozambique’s National Elections Commission (CNE) has approved provincial targets for voter registration that are way out of line with the country’s population, as estimated by the National Statistics Institute (INE), on the basis of projections from the 2017 population census.
Once again, there will be more voter registration brigades in areas which, in the past, have voted heavily in favour of the ruling Frelimo Party, and far too few brigades in much larger provinces where the opposition parties are known to have strongholds.
For example, in Gaza province, which has always voted massively in favour of Frelimo, there are 530 registration brigades, for an estimated population of voting age of 798,813. This means that each registration brigade should try to register 1,507 potential voters.
Gaza has a low population density (18.4 people per square kilometre), and so does Niassa in the far north (14 people per square kilometre). But in Niassa there are 388 registration brigades for a voting age population of 1,355,203 – thus each brigade in Niassa must try to register 3,493 voters, more than twice as many as the average brigade in Gaza.
The province with the largest voting age population is Nampula, with 4,302,768 potential voters. The CNE has given Nampula 1,021 brigades – so each brigade has a target of registering 4,214 voters.
Compare this with Inhambane province, where there are 457 brigades for 892,273 potential voters – or 1,952 per brigade. So each brigade in Nampula should try to register twice as many voters as each brigade in Inhambane.
The political difference is that, in the past, Inhambane has voted overwhelmingly in favour of Frelimo, while there is a strong presence in Nampula of the main opposition party, Renamo.
Commenting on these disparities, the bulletin on the elections published by the anti-corruption NGO, the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), remarks “there will be more teams in Frelimo areas than in Renamo ones, making it harder for Renamo voters to register”.
Voter registration begins on 15 March, but continuing heavy rainfall is certain to create difficulties in parts of the northern provinces, where the road network is much less developed than in the south.
The number of potential voters per registration brigade in each of the 11 provincial constituencies, is as follows:
Nampula 4,214
Zambezia 2,936
Sofala 3,115
Niassa 3,493
Tete 2,853
Cabo Delgado 2,638
Manica 2,420
Inhambane 1,952
Gaza 1,507
Maputo province 2,717
Maputo city 3,749
Maputo city’s target is higher than that of most other constituencies – but it is a densely populated urban area, where no potential voter is more than a few minutes’ walk from the nearest registration post.
(AIM)
Pf/ (448)