In the past few elections Frelimo has registered fake observers, mostly from Frelimo's Mozambican Youth Organisation (Organização da Juventude Moçambicana, OJM). They register as members of an unknown youth group, CNJ (Comissão Nacional da Juventude). In previous elections the Zambezia provincial election commission has given credentials to more than 1000 CNJ and other Frelimo members, while refusing credentials to real observers. Wearing red bands or clothes, they are clearly linked to Frelimo.
They have two roles. The first is ballot box stuffing. Observers and journalists can vote at any polling station because they are working away from their own area (known as the "special vote"), but like other voters they must dip their finger into the indelible ink so they do not vote again. But in Zambézia and other provinces, Frelimo nominated election officials control the ink bottle and do not require CNJ observers to ink their fingers, allowing the herd to move quickly to another polling station and vote again, often a dozen or more times. Sometimes they have cars waiting for them to take them to the next polling centre. Sometimes the two tasks are combined; in one polling station the CNJ observers were each given five ballot papers.
The herds of Frelimo observers also serve to control the Frelimo-nominated polling station staff. They can be quite intimidating in groups. They often meet with and give instructions to polling station presidents. In Sofala, two "observers" arrived, took the president outside, and he never returned to the polling station.
