Maputo — Mozambique's National Elections Commission (CNE) has allocated a subsidy earmarked for the now defunct Renamo-Electoral Union (RUE) coalition to two members of that coalition now standing in this month's general elections.

CNE spokesperson Juvenal Bucuane told AIM on Thursday that because the law states that the subsidy from the state budget for the election campaign should take into account the current distribution of parliamentary seats, the CNE had decided to allocate a third of the five million meticais (about 182,000 US dollars) to the two forces represented in the 2004-2009 parliament - the ruling Frelimo Party and the RUE - in proportion to the number of seats they held.

Since Frelimo won 160 seats in the 2004 election and Renamo the remaining 90, this would give a distribution of 1.07 million meticais to Frelimo and 600,000 meticais to the RUE. (This is in addition to the money that Frelimo and Renamo receive for their presidential campaigns, and for their participation in this year's parliamentary and provincial elections).

But who could receive the RUE's money, since the RUE was dissolved in July? Bucuane said that, on the advice of its Commission on Legal and Ethical matters, the CNE had divided the money between the two components of the RUE that are standing on their own in the 28 October elections - Renamo and ALIMO (Independent Alliance of Mozambique).

This excludes other members of the coalition who are also involved in the election. For example, the National Convention Party (PCN) was a member of the RUE, and is now backing the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), led by the Mayor of Beira, Daviz Simango. The two PCN deputies in the outgoing parliament, Lutero Simango and Abel Mabunda, are on the MDM's parliamentary lists: why are they not entitled to part of the RUE subsidy?

Nine RUE deputies resigned from Renamo, and are also on the MDM lists. They were, at Renamo's demand, expelled from parliament in September - but are appealing against that decision, which they regard as illegal. These nine deputies were ten per cent of the RUE parliamentary group for almost five years - why are they not entitled to 10 per cent of the RUE money?

Bucuane admitted that he had no immediate answer to these questions and would have to seek legal advice.

AIM also pointed out that the printed list of polling stations issued by the CNE is incomplete. In an embarrassing blunder, the CNE has omitted eight entire districts (Changara, Cahora Bassa, Magoe, Macanga, Chiuta and Chifunde in Tete province, Mabalane in Gaza and Sanga in Niassa).

The entire list appears correctly on the CNE website - but most Mozambicans do not have access to computers and depend on printed materials.

Bucuane said that the only solution is for the CNE's executive body, the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE) to issue an addendum as quickly as possible.

Asked about improving transparency in counting the votes, Bucuane said that currently most members of the CNE are in the provinces training the CNE's support bodies, the district and provincial elections commissions, in order to deal with issues that arise during the count.

Votes are counted initially at the polling stations, and are then tabulated at district, provincial and finally national level. In the November 2008 municipal elections serious mathematical mistakes were made in adding up the results sheets from the polling stations in Beira and Nacala cities. The results at provincial level showed Frelimo winning an absolute majority in the Beira municipal assembly, and winning the Nacala mayoral elections on the first round.

Neither of these was accurate, and the CNE had to correct the provincial arithmetic. Bucuane hoped that the current training exercise will eliminate such errors.

As for eliminating the serious fraud that occurred in a large number of polling stations in 2004, particularly in Changara district, Tete province, where an impossible 100 per cent (or sometime more than 100 per cent) turnout was recorded, Bucuane put his trust in the new Code of Conduct for polling station staff. This reminds staff that there are serious penalties for fraud.

"We cannot guess that people will break the rules", he said. "But we do have means of checking, and the polling station staff have been warned that anyone who commits an electoral offence will be punished".

In the second round of the Nacala mayoral election, held on 11 February, in at least three of the 99 polling stations, members of staff deliberately added marks to ballot papers making it look as if voters had tried to vote for both candidates. It was mostly Renamo votes that were invalidated in this way.

Bucuane said that CNE sent the names of those involved in this fraud to the Public Prosecutor's Office, but so far no trial has been held.