Pemba (Mozambique), 9 Oct (AIM) – The Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE), in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, has guaranteed that Wednesday’s presidential, parliamentary and provincial elections will take place in all the regions where the electoral bodies conducted voter registration.
However, voting will not include the administrative posts of Mucojo, Quiterajo and part of Mbau, since voter registration was not carried out in these regions as a result of the movement of groups of Islamist terrorists, who have been carrying out extreme violence.
The STAE provincial director, Cassamo Camal, speaking to reporters, on Tuesday, in the Cabo Delgado provincial capital, Pemba, said that the voting will only take place in those regions where there was voter registration.
“Where there was registration, there voting will take place. This is the guarantee we are giving here, and we are making an effort to ensure that the vote takes place. It is necessary to guarantee citizens’ right to vote, which is enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic”, he said.
According to Camal, Cabo Delgado has areas where there are more registered voters than adults (according to the data provided by the National Statistics Institute, INE). In much of the country, this would be a sure sign of election fraud – but in Cabo Delgado, the phenomenon is probably not the result of “ghost voters”, but of the mass displacement of the population by the terrorist raids
Camal said that the displacement of the population has an impact on the distribution of seats in the Mozambican Parliament. Seats are allocated by province, and in accordance with the number of registered voters. Camal said that Cabo Delgado has lost seats, “because citizens have taken refuge in neighboring provinces, such as Nampula.”
“We are ready to carry out the voting, because we have already transported the election materials from the provincial warehouses to the district warehouses, and they are now being taken to the administrative posts, localities and to the polling stations”, he said.
He added that the distribution of materials in some places in districts like Macomia and Quissanga, which have been plagued by terrorism, is also being guaranteed by “alternative means”, namely by aircraft and boats, according to a decision by the National Elections Commission (CNE).
“All the material is already in the district capitals and the strategy is to place the materials in safer areas. In the less secure areas, we’ll use alternative means, namely by air and boats. We are also vigilant in the areas of Mecufi and Chiúre, and some of Ancuabe”, he said.
Cabo Delgado has just over 1.4 million voters. The province will have 2,191 polling stations, which will be operated by 15,337 polling station staff (MMVs).
(AIM)
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