8 July 2009
Maputo — The Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE), the electoral branch of the Mozambican civil service, has admitted that the current voter registration has been hampered by constant breakdowns in the digital equipment used.
The breakdowns have led Luis Gouveia, director of the election office of the former rebel movement Renamo, to accuse STAE of deliberately sabotaging the registration, particularly in areas where Renamo claims to enjoy significant support.
Interviewed in Wednesday's issue of the independent daily "O Pais", STAE general director Felisberto Naife categorically denied the Renamo accusations. He said defective equipment is being replaced, and there is no reason for alarm.
The main problem is with the batteries used by the computers. Naife said that STAE is replacing failed batteries. "We have already sent 100 batteries to Nampula, Cabo Delgado and Zambezia provinces, and at local level we are acquiring generators to strengthen our capacity", he said. "This week, we shall step up the provision of batteries in all provinces".
Naife added that, when 43 days was allowed for voter registration, this was because the electoral bodies were aware there could be problems with some of the machines. The computers were imported from South Africa in 2007 for the complete re-registration of the electorate that year. They were used again to update the registers in July-August 2008, ahead of the November municipal elections.
Some of the machines are now unusable. Naife said that 30 per cent have been discarded. But in other cases, the problems could be solved by replacing accessories such as the batteries.
As for Gouveia's claims that hundreds of registration posts have not even opened, although the registration period is now half way through, Naife said that STAE has so far not received any formal complaints from Renamo.
He invited the political parties to cooperate with STAE. "Under the law, all the parties have the duty and the possibility to collaborate", he said. "The concerns of the political parties are also our concerns".
The electoral registers already contain 9.3 million names from the registration undertaken in 2007 and 2008. The current registration is largely aimed at young Mozambicans who reach the voting age of 18 on or before the election date of 28 October. But anyone who, for whatever reason, failed to register in 2007 or 2008 may do so now.
STAE's target is to register a further 483,000 voters, and Naife was confident that this figure could be achieved. In the first two weeks of the registration, about 120,000 people - thus a quarter of the target - had registered.
Jacinto Antonio, director of STAE in Nampula, the largest of the 11 provincial constituencies, denied the Renamo claim that 170 voter registration brigades had not even begun their work yet. Cited in the daily newsheet "Canal de Mocambique", he said that in reality there had just been "temporary breakdowns" in the digital machines.
The main problem he cited was problems in charging the computer batteries. This was linked to the quality of the generators used in areas which are not connected to the national electricity grid. This meant that the batteries were continually running out of charge. To guarantee efficiency, Antonio said that Nampula STAE would need over 470 generators in good condition.
Nampula's target is to register 97,470 new voters. Antonio only had figures for the first week (15-21 June), in which 7,071 new votes registered. In addition, 9,218 people were issued with new voter cards, because they had lost or damaged their old one, and 3.103 people who had changed address, moved their electoral registration.
Pf/ (600)
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
