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Mozambique: Voting Begins in Municipal Elections

19 November 2008

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Maputo — Voting began on time in polling stations across Maputo on Wednesday in Mozambique's third municipal elections.

The polls were due to open at 07.00, and reports reaching AIM from across the capital suggested that there had been no significant delays. Queues could be seen outside many of the polling stations, and some voters told reporters they had begun queuing at 05.00.

This suggests that there may be an improvement on the miserable turnout in the 2003 local elections, when only 22 per cent of Maputo's registered electorate bothered to vote. To encourage a high turnout, the government declared Wednesday a public holiday.

Reports from elsewhere in the country also point to efficiency on the part of the electoral bodies. Television and radio reporters indicated that the polls had opened at 07.00 in Nampula, Chimoio and Tete.

The only major city from which problems have been reported so far is Beira. The independent television station STV noted that in one school, several polling stations had not opened by 07.40 - including the station at which the mayor of Beira, Daviz Simango, was scheduled to vote.

The staff of these stations were present but refused to explain to STV what the problem was. The head of the Beira delegation of the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE), the electoral branch of the Mozambican civil service, promised to go to the school, in the neighbourhood of Palmeiras, to sort out any difficulties.

Pf/ (249)

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