Maputo — The provincial anti-corruption office in the central Mozambican province of Sofala detained a member of a voter registration brigade, and two women would-be voters at the weekend, when they were caught offering and taking bribes.
According to a report on the independent television station STV, the women paid the bribe in order to jump the queue.
The incident occurred at a registration post in Manga neighbourhood, in the city of Beira. The brigade member charged the two women 100 meticais (about 1.5 US dollars) to be registered immediately, rather than waiting in the lengthy queue.
The anti-corruption office said it had been alerted to such practices, and so sent agents to the registration post. They caught the three in the act of offering and taking the money.
The case will now be sent for summary trial at a Beira court. The brigade member could be sentenced to up to five years imprisonment, while the maximum sentence for the women is two years each - a heavy sentence for queue jumping.
Far more serious incidents at the registration posts were reported in the latest issue of the Bulletin on the municipal elections published by the anti-corruption NGO, the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP).
Thus in Angoche municipality, in the northern province of Nampula, a clash began when a monitor from the ruling Frelimo Party accused the main opposition party, Renamo of clandestinely bringing a car with its members resident outside the municipal boundary to register as voters.
According to CIP correspondents in Angoche, Renamo tried to remove Frelimo members from the queues. One CIP correspondent managed to film the confusion, but the Renamo members surrounded him and, threatening to beat him up, they obliged him to delete the film. Intervention by a police officer prevented the correspondent from being assaulted, but the video was erased.
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In the midst of the argument, there were physical assaults, which resulted in partial damage to the printer used for the registration. There were also claims that some of the Renamo sympathisers at that Angoche registration post come from other parts of Nampula province, such as Mozambique Island, Mogincual, Mogovolas and Moma, and so would not be entitled to register or vote in Angoche.
The CIP Bulletin also reported that, in the central city of Chimoio, a Renamo monotor, named Augusto Macorreia, was attacked by police oficers when he tried to stop the registration of individuals, because they supposedly resided outside of the municipal area.
In Alto Molócuè, in Zambézia province, a Frelimo monitor, named Pereira Pilima, registered first in the Pista Velha registration post, and then at a post in the Malua 2 primary school, where he was discovered.
The monitors from other parties took measures to check the truthfulness of the information, and concluded that this citizen did indeed register twice. He said he has apologised to the other monitors for his dual registration.
