Several thousand Frelimo party activists have been accredited as observers, in order to stuff ballot boxes. One was trapped and caught dramatically in a Maganja da Costa, Zambézia, Secondary School polling station, as he bribed a Podemos polling station monitor with 50,000 meticais ($780) to allow him to stuff the ballot boxes in favour of Frelimo.
Adérito dos Santos Macie was an observer for the National Youth Council (CNJ), accredited by the Zambézia Provincial Elections Commission (CPE). The CNJ is one of a range of fake or little known outside organisations used by the Frelimo party youth wing OJM to accredit their ballot box stuffing teams. In Maganja da Costa, the group consisted of both men and women. Each of its members attempted to negotiate with the opposition monitors at each polling station.
The returning officer (president) of polling station 080109-05, Gamito Grilo, a member of the Maganja da Costa Municipal Police and also a member of Frelimo, called the young Podemos monitor to tell him: “I have some coins to give us space to do our thing" - namely ballot box stuffing - according to the Podemos monitor. The first proposal was for 10,000 meticais ($156), which was immediately refused. The sum rose to 15,000, but was again refused.
Feeling under pressure, the young Podemos delegate informed his party’s election agent that he was being harassed to receive money from Frelimo to allow ballot box stuffing.
The election agent instructed him to accept the proposal and receive the money as a way to obtain evidence that Frelimo was bribing opposition monitors and polling station chairs in order to allow ballot box stuffing. The monitor returned to his post, showing apparent lack of concern over the bribe negotiations.
Adérito dos Santos Macie, displeased by the young man’s refusal to accept the bribe, came up with a higher proposal: 40,000 meticais. He told the PODEMOS monitor: “Boy, accept it and I’ll give you 40,000”. The offer was again refused. The supposed observer did not give up. He raised the offer to 50,000 meticais. The proposal was accepted, but the acceptance now contained a trap.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Adérito dos Santos immediately took 15,000 meticais ($234) that he had on his person and passed it to the Podemos monitor with a promise that he would go to the bank and take out the missing 35,000 meticais to complete the promised 50,000.
At the same time, the Podemos monitor alerted his election agent that he had received the money as evidence. The election agent called the press and the police, and Adérito dos Santos was caught red-handed. There are two videos: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yO5CMRgtkOw and https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ0geyjKTuE
The false observer was violently attacked. He tried to run away, but he was stopped and the attacks continued until the police intervened.
It is not known how many fake observers were accredited by the Frelimo Party, but in the 2019 elections, Zambézia province had more than 3,000, all from organisations controlled by Frelimo.
