'Polling station chairs must guarantee Frelimo’s victory,' orders Frelimo Central Brigade in Gaza - even if they are not being paid.
"Now we have chairs of the polling stations. We need to prepare these people. But it must be a strong preparation to understand that the victory of Frelimo depends on them. They must guarantee Frelimo’s victory”, ordered a member of the Frelimo provincial brigade (Four minute video recorded during the meeting, Portuguese).
He was speaking at a meeting of directors and deputy directors of schools and to senior cadres of the Frelimo Party at a meeting held on 2 September, in Manjacaze, Gaza. Many polling station staff are teachers put there by Frelimo, and the speaker was clearly worried by teachers not receiving all their salary, and of registration party monitors not yet paid. Despite that, they must still work for Frelimo if they have been posted on a polling station.
“Maybe a teacher has not received overtime payments for three years. This teacher has to know that this is not be this time to demand accountability from the Party (Frelimo). We have to work. The problem will be solved and is being solved. The government has debts with teachers and with others. It’s heavy. Those who work should receive their wages, but some situations dictated the appearance of this debt”, he explained.
This Frelimo member also revealed that the party still owes its party monitors for their work inspecting the voter registration held between 20 April and 3 June: “We have some debts with the monitors related with the registration work. These comrades should be united. When the conditions are ready, the matter will be solved, but not by stopping the work. Even this that they [the monitors and the teachers] are demanding, if Frelimo falls, we will get nothing”.
Polling station and registration staff, by law, must be neutral. But this has never applied in Gaza. In the same video, he advises the teachers to continue manipulating the elections, even if the State owes them payment for overtime and work on the registration.
In the April-June registration, more than 83,000 ghost voters - people who do not exist - were registered in Gaza.
