Africa-Press – Mozambique. Our correspondents in the cities of Maputo and Matola, and in the surrounding districts, report a sombre scenario in which the schools where voter registration brigades had been operating are now occupied by people driven from their homes by the floods caused by the torrential rains of the weekend.
For example, all the registration posts installed near the headquarters of the Infulene Administrative Post are not functioning. At the time of writing, no post is open to register voters (at the Zona Verde EPC, and the T-3, Benfica Nova and Infulene Secondary schools).
In the KaMubukwane municipal district, the posts at 1 June EPC, Infulene-Benfica ES, U30 EPC, Bagamoio EPC, Rua 04 and 07 EPC, and Zedequias Manganhela ES, are also closed.
This is the scenario throughout Maputo and Matola cities. In Maputo, classes are closed until Friday 29 March, to allow affected people to be accommodated in the schools. Furthermore, some schools have been inundated by the flood waters, and so do not provide minimum conditions for the work of the registration brigades.
Rain has disrupted registration across the country, and heavy cloud means that solar panels are not working well. This is because Mozambique has 14 different law governing elections, plus constitutional clauses. Delays in parliament changing the law forced the 15 March start of registration.
The problem dates back to 2010, when donors had more power. After the 2009 election, the Constitutional Council demanded the laws be merged into a single election code. Government and civil society agreed. But bilateral donors did not, and withheld funds for three months to successfully force government to ignore the Constitutional Council. So the package of 14 sometimes contradictory laws remains. But donors have stopped funding an electoral mess they partly created.
Our correspondents in Nampula report that potential voters are abandoning the voter registration posts because of the slowness in registering voters. Questions are being raised if this is intentional. Some parts of Nampula vote heavily for the opposition. Could registration brigades be discouraging registration in those areas?
Cases of slowness are reported from Muecate district, specifically at registration post no. 948, brigada 787. The brigade members are sluggish in registering data, there are queues, and the potential voters can take up to three days to obtain tickets in order to register.
At the Makassa II EPC, in Rapale district, there is also a poor turnout due to the slowness of registration, which has tried the patience of the population.
There were at least 7 potential voters at the post in the 25 June EPC, in Rapale, but 5 of them abandoned the queue, complaining of the slow attendance.
In Eráti district, there was a crowd of voters at the registration post installed at the Fábrica EPC, due to the slow attendance. The typist was taking up to 20 minutes to register a single voter, which infuriated the crowd.
In Ibo district, Cabo Delgado, one of the areas most affected by the insurgency, electoral civic education activities began Monday (25 March) and there are promises that the registration equipment will arrive today.
Quissanga district still has no training of brigade members and no voter registration. It is still not known when registration will begin. The district STAE is waiting for guidance from the provincial STAE. Quissanga had been occupied by insurgents who have now left, but many civil servants have not returned.
In Mocímboa da Praia, Ntotwe locality, 25 km from Mocimboa da Praia town, has no registration brigades. At the Pandique registration post, in the Mocímboa district capital, the registration has not yet begun.
Frelimo has obliged all public employees who occupy positions of leadership to contribute between 500 and 5,000 meticais to pay an allowance to the Frelimo monitors in Tambara district, in Manica province. Those covered include school directors, department heads, locality chiefs and heads of administrative posts.
At the Malila EPC, 3 kms from the Majune district capital, in Niassa, our correspondents recorded 5 cases of falsification of personal documents by 14 year old adolescents. The adolescents used pens to add a number to increase their age on the document in order to obtain a voter card.
The police intervened and threatened to arrest them. But none of them were detained.
Currently that post does not print cards. They register the voters and print the cards the following day. They cite the rain that has been falling and say that the solar panels do not support the charge
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