12 January 2008
Maputo — Between 24 September and 15 December, over 7.5 million Mozambicans registered as voters - or about three quarters of the estimated potential electorate.
Giving detailed figures at a Maputo press conference on Saturday, Felisberto Naife, general director of the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE), said that, based on the preliminary results of the population census held in August, there are an estimated 10.14 million Mozambicans of voting age (18 and above). This is rather smaller than previous rough estimates of 10.5 million.
From September to December, the 3,242 registration brigades issued voting cards to 7,596,011 citizens. That leaves another 2.54 million people to be registered in the second phase of voter registration, which will run from 15 January to 15 March.
Naife said the best results came from Tete, which has registered 84.4 per cent of its potential electorate, Maputo province (83.9 per cent) and Niassa (83.3 per cent).
These, however, are all relatively small provinces. The two most populous provinces, Nampula and Zambezia, where 40 per cent of the total population lives, are lagging behind. The brigades registered 69.1 per cent of the estimated electorate in Nampula and 67.2 per cent in Zambezia.
Surprisingly, Maputo City did not do particularly well either. Although nobody in the capital lives more than a few minutes walk from a registration post, the brigades only registered 77.3 per cent of Maputo's potential electorate.
The most instructive contrast is with 1999, the last time that the entire electorate was registered. Then 7.1 million people received voter cards - this was 85 per cent of the estimated electorate of the time. To reach 85 per cent now, STAE would have to register 8.6 million people.
This is a much more reasonable target than 10.14 million, since no country can expect to register 100 per cent of its potential electorate. To reach the figure of 8.6 million, the brigades have two months to register slightly more than a million people.
Naife admitted that last year some parts of Nampula, Niassa, Cabo Delgado and Tete provinces were not reached at all, They were to have been covered by mobile brigades - but because of the long delays in receiving the computer equipment essential for the brigades' operations, they were left out. Naife said these areas would be the top priority for the second phase of registration.
The following table compares the 1999 and 2007 registration exercises:
Province 1999 2007 Niassa 356,693 404,971 Cabo Delgado 618,451 701,162 Nampula 1,434,764 1,294,204 Zambezia 1,384,626 1,273,536 Tete 503,422 615,969 Manica 421,266 535,658 Sofala 593,877 641,181 Inhambane 495,981 544,638 Gaza 465,151 500,288 Maputo Province 369,234 509,560 Maputo City 455,640 574,844 TOTAL 7,099,105 7,596,011
As can readily be seen, Nampula and Zambezia are the only provinces that have not yet surpassed the 1999 figure, and they will be determinant in whether or not the country is able once again to register at least 85 per cent of its potential electorate.
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