Maputo — Mozambique's National Elections Commission (CNE) is giving a state subsidy to a coalition that no longer exists.

The coalition is the Renamo-Electoral Union (the RUIE), formed of the main opposition party Renamo and ten minor parties, which was the opposition force in parliament between 1999 and this year.

But the coalition was formally dissolved in July, and Renamo is standing on its own in the 28 October general and provincial elections. There are 19 parties or coalitions standing in the parliamentary elections - but the CNE has divided the first instalment of the subsidy for the election campaign into 20 parts, including the RUE, even though the coalition has been disbanded and is therefore not standing in any of the constituencies.

The law states that in distributing campaign funds, the CNE must take into account the number of seats held by parties in the outgoing parliament, as well as the number of seats being contested in the elections. On the basis of this, the CNE has allotted 4.5 million meticais (about 164,000 US dollars) to the RUE, although the legislators cannot possibly have intended money to be given to a defunct organisation.

Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, CNE spokesperson Juvenal Bucuane announced that not only had the RUE received the first 50 per cent of the money, but it had justified the use of these funds and had so received the next 25 per cent.

When AIM asked him how the CNE could possibly give money to a body that doesn't exist, he said "I have nothing to say as to whether it exists or does not exist".

From sources who were once members of the dead coalition, AIM knows that the paperwork on the formal dissolution of the RUE has gone to the Ministry of Justice, which keeps the register of political parties and coalitions.

This looks simply like a way of giving Renamo an extra slice of the cash. But Renamo and the RUE are not legally the same thing. And if Renamo is entitled to some of the money, what about the minor parties in the coalition, one of which, ALIMO (Mozambique Independent Alliance) is standing in its own right, while others, such as the National Convention Party (PCN) are effectively part of the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), the largest of the current extra-parliamentary forces?

Bucuane said that the RUE and 18 of the 19 parties standing had received the first instalment. The one that has received nothing so far is the UDM (Union of Mozambican Democrats), because it does not have a tax number. Six parties (including both Renamo and the RUE) have received the second instalment , while the money is being transferred to a further five.

Bucuane also dismissed fears that the ballot papers and other voting materials would not be ready by 28 October. He insisted that everything would be in the provinces "long before" polling day.

The Mozambican company SOTUX won the tender to produce the material, in partnership with the printing house Academica. They have sub-contracted a South African company, and all the materials are currently being produced in South Africa, under the watchful eye of a CNE team including members appointed by Renamo, by the ruling Frelimo Party, and from civil society.

The materials (including the ballot papers, the forms for the results sheets and polling station minutes, the voting booths, and the transparent ballot boxes) will be organised into kits for each district. Bucuane said the kits would include the voter register for each polling station, and there would be no repetition of the 2004 mistakes when some polling stations never received registers, and so nobody could vote there.

The materials will go by truck directly from South Africa to each of the provincial capitals. The trucks will receive a police escort, and the warehouses in the provinces will also be carefully guarded to ensure the inviolability of the kits, promised Bucuane.