Electoral authorities are repeating the misconduct of last's year municipal elections, registering Frelimo voters first the then when they get to opposition voters waiting in the queue, the registration machine "breaks down". And CIP correspondents have been denied press credentials in four provinces. And as in last year's registration, the fraud is brazen and done in public.
Zambézia CPE illegally refuses accreditation and returns forms to CIP
The Zambézia Provincial Elections Commission (CPE) on Tuesday (26 March) returned to CIP all the paperwork concerning the accreditation of its correspondents, alleging that the request must specify the districts in which they will work. This is blatantly illegal.
The law is clear: “For observation, the credential should mention the electoral constituency in which the observer will undertake their activity of election observation” (article 253, of Law 8/2023, of 27 February, altered by Law 2/2019, of 31 May). These are general elections and the parliamentary constituency is the province, not the district.
CIP has not yet been accredited in Niassa, Zambézia, Nampula and Maputo provinces. It has been partly accredited in Maputo city, and fully accredited in the remaining provinces (Gaza, Inhambane, Sofala, Manica, Tete and Cabo Delgado).
In Maputo city and province the accreditation process has already lasted for almost a month. In Nampula it has been under way for about 3 weeks.
The model of the CIP letter, send with names of our correspondents to all CPEs, has resulted in the issuing of credentials. Zambézia is the only one to make the illegal demand that CIP should specify the districts. Three are simply not responding.
The decision by the Zambézia CPE may be deliberate, in order to delay still further the accreditation of observers and journalists.
During the municipal elections in Zambézia, CIP faced the same difficulties, and credentials were only issued in the final days of the voter registration. In last year’s municipal elections, Zambézia was one of the provinces where electoral fraud was committed in broad daylight. History is repeating itself with the same actors.
Frelimo priority
Identity documents from Frelimo members in the neighbourhood of Mulevala-sede EPCs, Zambézia, are bring collected by neighbourhood secretaries, and placed as priorities in the registration posts. Brigade members first register those voters documents are in their hands, relegating the other voters to last place. The priority given to Frelimo members and sympathisers tires the potentially opposition supporters, who then abandon the queue.
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MDM monitors in Búzi district, Sofala, say brigade members in the 36 registration posts, in coordination with the neighbourhood secretaries and the village heads, are prioritising members of Frelimo in the registration. The Frelimo voters are accompanied to the registration posts by the village secretaries so that they do not wait in the queues.
Orders to block registration of opposition voters
The director ZIP number 09,of Derre in Namuno, Cabo Delgado, received calls from the district STAE instructing him to inform the Frelimo monitor stationed at the Zunguza registration post to “remain attentive and block the registration of voters belonging to Renamo”. As we have ascertained, the instruction was “whenever a member of Renamo comes to register his name should be put in a notebook and at the end the list, and should be shared with the top Frelimo body in the district”.
The same information also notes that the Derre STAE is aware that 40 members of Renamo are at the future Zunguza EPC post waiting for the mobile brigade to register. The mobile brigade, coming from the Namuno EPC, will operate on Monday.
The MDM adds that the strategy is that, in the first weeks of registration, only the Frelimo members should be registered, leaving everyone else until later. It is suspected that many citizens, particularly members of the opposition, may not be able to register, because by this time there will be breakdowns of the Mobile-IDs.
