Maputo, 31 Mar (AIM) – Mozambique’s Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE) has claimed that, in the first 15 days of voter registration (which began on 15 March), it has registered more than 2.4 million voters.
This is 32 per cent of the target of 7.7 million voters. In addition, 8.7 million voters were registered last year, ahead of the municipal elections, and do not need to register again.
Interviewed by Radio Mozambique, STAE spokesperson Regina Matsinhe said that the total number of voters known to have registered since 15 March was 2,463,857.
The real figure could be higher because of the difficulty experienced by the STAE central office in communicating with some of the registration brigades. There were also difficulties imposed by the attacks by islamist terrorists in parts of the northern province of Cabo Delgado, and by the torrential rains that have affected much of the country.
In Cabo Delgado, in particular, registration posts had been paralysed by storms, and key roads had become impassable.
In some parts of Cabo Delgado, Matsinhe admitted, the registration has not even started. Terrorism in Quissanga district had prevented STAE from placing registration brigades there, but in the neighbouring district of Ibo “the brigades have been trained and the material is in place, and I believe that in a few days the registration will begin”.
Some STAE officials are continuing to obstruct independent observation of the voter registration. Despite submitting their requests for accreditation in good time, by this weekend the correspondents of the anti-corruption NGO, the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), were still not accredited in Zambezia and Maputo provinces.
Even where they are accredited, observers have been subjected to harassment and threats.
CIP reports that on 29 March in Ribáuè, in Nampula province an observer was threatened by the district STAE spokesperson. He was observing, and was duly accredited, at the voter registration post in Namiconha locality, in Ribáuè.
By coincidence, the STAE spokesperson was at the same post. Although the CIP observer was duly accredited, the STAE spokesperson banned him from observing the registration at that post, and alleged that his credential might be false. He said “the world is full of technology and credentials can be forged”. This official did not bother to phone up the provincial STAE office to check the authenticity of the credential.
The intention, CIP accuses, “was obviously to block election observation”, noting that “Ribáuè is the district where, during last year’s registration, the district STAE director at the time was found clandestinely registering people from outside the municipality so that they could vote in the municipal elections”.
Despite the optimism of Regina Matsinhe, the voter registration is still characterised by breakdowns of the Mobile-ID computers used at the registration posts, and their printers.
Reports of these malfunctions come from all over the country – which suggests that STAE did not bother to check the state of the computers and printers before the registration began.
With the breakdowns, queues inevitably build up at the registration posts, and some disappointed potential voters give up and go home.
Solar panels are supposed to provide a back-up source of power – but in many cases reported by CIP the solar panels are not functioning properly, and are unable to hold their charge.
(AIM)
Pf/ (542)
