Maputo — The spokesperson for Mozambique's National Elections Commission (CNE), Paulo Cuinica, claims that the body lacks funds to purchase air tickets in order to transport, throughout the country, the polling station staff (MMVs) who will be working on the presidential, parliamentary and provincial elections scheduled for 9 October.
According to Cuinica, speaking to reporters on Monday, in Maputo, the CNE also lacks air resources to transport other election materials.
"At the moment, we're requesting airlifts so that we can transport the MMVs who will be working on voting day and also those more sensitive materials that will be arriving a few days before the elections take place. We don't know how far we are into the financial deficit, but there are colleagues who have not received their allowances for three months', he said. (These are allowances for members of the provincial and district elections commissions).
The CNE's executive body, the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE) is training 184,310 MMVs to work in the 26,330 polling stations that will be set up throughout the country. A further 602 polling stations in the diaspora will be staffed by 4,214 MMVs.
There should be seven staff at each polling station - four recruited by STAE through public tenders, and three appointed by the three parliamentary political parties, namely the ruling Frelimo Party and the opposition Renamo and Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM).
However, there is clear evidence that the public tenders are not public at all, but are being manipulated by Frelimo. This came to light in the city of Quelimane where the central office of STAE discovered that the tender for training MMVs was fake, and that in reality the ruling Frelimo party had submitted a list of 154 candidates to fill the posts of trainers.
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STAE-Central annulled the Quelimane tender. But it is not clear how widespread this illegal behavior is.
Cuinica explained that some voting material has not arrived in the country yet, contrary to the law that establishes a deadline of up to 10 days before Election Day. However, he said, there are those materials that have already been produced and only need to be packaged.
"Other material is already in transit to the country and everything is guaranteed. The equipment is being produced in neighboring South Africa. To this end, a team from the CNE and STAE has been sent to South Africa to ensure the security, effectiveness and efficiency of this activity. The team is supported by a non-permanent team that provides short-term supervision', he said.
Cuinica also expressed his concern at the security conditions in those districts plagued by Islamist terrorists in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, although the CNE chairperson, Anglican Bishop Carlos Matsinhe, recently said that the elections "will take place without restrictions throughout the country, including in areas previously affected by terrorism.'
"However, we believe that we will be able to hold elections in these places. Everything that is within the reach of the electoral bodies is being done, hoping that the Defence and Security Forces will in fact guarantee the necessary conditions so that the elections can take place smoothly', said Cuinica.
