Maputo — Despite the optimism shown by Mozambique's National Elections Commission (CNE), there remain problems in the current voter registration, with "many registration posts closed for long periods", according to the latest issue of the "Mozambican Political Process Bulletin", published by the Association of European Parliamentarians for Africa (AWEPA), and by the Mozambican anti-corruption NGO, the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP).

Correspondents for the Bulletin around the country visited registration posts. In the northern province of Nampula, one correspondent visited Morrupula district, the birthplace of President Armando Guebuza, on 14-15 July (i.e. a month after registration started), going to seven registration posts, none of which was operating.

One had never opened because the computer did not work and had not been replaced. The other six, however, did not have equipment problems - they worked for a week, then ran out of the plastic covers required for issuing voter cards, and had not been resupplied.

Another Bulletin correspondent went to Mogincual district, also in Nampula. He found the district had 17 generators and battery chargers needed to ensure a power supply for the registration brigades' computers - but only seven of the generators were in working order. All five registration posts had not been working for the previous fortnight.

Even in the provincial capital, Nampula city, 11 registration posts were functioning irregularly because of printer problems.

The main opposition party, Renamo, has claimed the equipment problems are deliberate and are designed to prevent Renamo supporters from voting. However, both Murrupula and Mogincual provided majorities for the ruling Frelimo Party in the 2004 general election, and Frelimo scored a crushing victory over Renamo in Nampula city in the November 2008 municipal elections.

In the Goi-Goi area, in Mossurize district, Manica province, the Bulletin found that registration only began on 6 July, because of late arrival of the computer. In Docata, also in Mossurize, one brigade was operational but had to send its battery 35 kilometres, to the district capital, Espungabera, to be recharged. At Mucheneze, a brigade worked for the first day, but then the battery failed, and it could only resume work a month later.

The Bulletin cites Pedrito Conselho, head of an observer team from the Mozambique Christian Council, as saying that only five out of 40 registration brigades in Angonia district in the western province of Tete were functioning. In Nduala locality (which voted overwhelmingly for Renamo in 2004), a Bulletin correspondent who arrived on 18 July found that none of the four brigades allocated to the locality had begun work because of computer problems.

In Nicoadala district, in Zambezia province, several of the registration posts did not open during the first month, against due to computer problems. In the neighbouring district of Namacurra, all 33 brigades were working, at least sporadically, but all reported breakdowns.

Brigades can improvise solutions to some problems. Thus in Bandua, in Buzi district, Sofala province (which has voted heavily for Renamo in the past), neighbouring brigades have opted to share a battery, one keeping it for three days, and then passing it to the other.

In Ngauma district, in the northern district of Niassa, all five registration brigades were working, but the Bulletin correspondent found that the machines were issuing voter cards with the wrong photograph, a defect which the staff were unable to correct due to lack of materials. This could cause voters problems at the polling stations.

The CNE response to such criticisms has been to argue that equipment problems were inevitable, since the machines used are the same as those imported for the complete re-registration of the electorate in 2007-08. The CNE knew that problems were likely to occur, and thus allocated 45 days for this year's update of the registers, even though the total number of people to be registered was estimated at only 483,000 in the entire country. Under normal circumstances, to issue voter cards to that number of people a month, or even less, should have been ample time.

The Bulletin's correspondents mostly visited posts in mid-July, and it is possible that by now those posts have been opened. The CNE and its executive body, the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE), have not released figures of registration by brigade, or even by district.

The total figure for registration, according to STAE director Felisberto Naife, was over 294,000 by 19 July. Added to the 9.3 million registered in 2007 and 2008, that means there are around 9.5 million names currently on the voter's roll. From the 2007 population census, we can calculate that the number of Mozambicans of voting age (18 and above) cannot be more than 10.75 million. So by 19 July, despite the computer problems, 88 per cent of the potential electorate was registered.