
Maputo, 10 Apr (AIM) – Mozambique’s National Elections Commission (CNE) on Tuesday announced that, in the 24 days since the start of voter registration on 15 March, almost 4.4 million potential voters have been registered.
Speaking at a Maputo press conference, CNE spokesperson Paulo Cuinica said the current figure is 4,379,750, which is 58.44 per cent of the CNE’s projections.
To this figure must be added the 8,723,805 voters registered in 2023, ahead of that year’s municipal elections. This gives a total registered electorate of 12,642,248.
Based on projections made by the National Statistics Institute (INE), the total potential electorate is 16.217.826.
78 per cent of these potential voters are registered, but there are still more than three million who are not yet registered.
Cuinica said the current figures are something of an underestimate, since they do not include data from those registration brigades that have been unable to send their figures to Maputo for logistical reasons.
Inside the country, almost all the voter registration posts are fully operational, with only the 19 brigades in Quissanga district, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, still not being deployed because of the extreme violence carried out by islamist terrorists, said Cuinica.
“Out of a total of 6,031 registration brigades mobilized for the national territory, we have 6,010 (99.65%) operational and 21 (0.35%) that are not working”, he added.
He guaranteed that the Mozambican Police (PRM) continues to carry out operations in order to create security in the regions threatened by terrorists, as well as guarding materials and equipment used for registration.
“Despite the difficulties of accessibility on some Cabo Delgado roads (Montepuez-Mueda), or even impassibility (Mocomia-Awasse), the constraints that had hampered the installation and operation of the registration posts have been overcome”, he claimed.
Cuinica said that there is an extraordinary commitment on the part of the electoral institutions to guarantee that the inhabitants of Cabo Delgado may exercise their constitutional rights.
But he admitted that the heavy rains in southern Mozambique had a negative impact on the deployment of the brigades and the normal course of voter registration, as well as causing various difficulties in the supply of electricity, means of communication and access.
“In Maputo city, four registration posts were completely flooded”, Cuinica said.
He announced that 71,614 voters had been registered abroad, corresponding to 26 percent of the total of 279,685 potential voters expected in the diaspora.
He took the opportunity to inform those who registered in 2023 that they do not need to register again this year, except in cases where they have lost their voter card or changed their place of residence, or if the voter card has any anomalies that could prevent them from voting.
Cuinica also confirmed that the CNE is facing financial restrictions. The government’s failure to release funds, plus the debts incurred during the 2023 municipal elections are creating major embarrassments for the provision of goods and services.
The financial restrictions are causing delays in making fuel available, which is affecting technical assistance to the registration brigades and the payment of allowances to members of the electoral bodies, to the electoral agents (Civic Education Agents and members of the registration brigades) and to the police agents protecting the brigades.
On the positive side, the average time taken by the brigades to register one voter is now just five minutes. At the start of the registration, at some posts it was half an hour or longer.
The CNE also claims that breakdowns of the computers and printers used in the registration no longer pose a major problem. Incidents were reported from only two per cent of the registration posts. These were small scale and were quickly solved. They concerned lack of communication between the Mobile-ID computer and the printer, printer breakdowns, malfunctioning of the cameras, paper jams, and similar problems.
(AIM)
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