---

---

Mozambique: All Polling Stations Open

19 November 2008

---

Maputo — By mid-morning on Wednesday, Mozambique's third local elections were in full swing and all the polling stations in the country's 43 municipalities were open.

Lucas Jose, press officer for the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE), the electoral branch of the civil service, told AIM that there had been slight delays in opening some stations in Beira, Nampula and in the southern province of Gaza, but in all cases the delay was less than an hour.

He said no disturbances or incidents have been reported from any polling station. Jose was not aware of any cases where people were unable to vote because no electoral register, or the wrong register, had arrived at their polling station (this had been a serious problem in the 2004 general election).

The only problem so far, Jose said, was that it was taking a long time for people to vote. He expected voting to speed up as the polling station staff became more used to their task, and as the queues at the polling stations became smaller.

The STAE headquarters in Maputo is in regular mobile phone contact with all 11 STAE provincial directors. The enormous expansion of the mobile phone networks in recent years means that communication with all the polling stations is a simple matter..

Visits by AIM to polling stations in central Maputo in mid-morning showed that there were still lengthy queues. Substantial queues have also been reported from many of the other municipalities, indicating that these elections might see a much higher turnout than in the last local elections, in 2003.

Turnout then ranged from a low of 14 per cent in Nampula to a high of 44 per cent in the small northern town of Mocimboa da Praia.

Pf/ (286)

Be the first to Write a Comment!

---