Elections will be repeated by the same people who organised the fraud in the four municipalities
The National Elections Commission (CNE) and the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE) have decided to keep in place the same organisation that was responsible for the electoral crimes which led the Constitutional Council to annul the results of the elections in Marromeu and parts of Milange, Nacala-Port and Guruè. None of the leading figures in the electoral bodies has been suspended. The only changes will be at the level of polling station staff (MMVs).
The district directors of STAE and the chairs of the district election commissions, who were the main architects of the electoral crimes of 11 October, are the same people who will organise and head the recruitment of polling station staff and the entire logistical procedure for the repetition of the elections on 10 December in the municipalities of Milange, Marromeu, Guruè and Nacala-Port. Thus there is little confidence in the transparency of the elections that are to be repeated.
On Wednesday (29 November), the General Director of STAE, Loló Correia, instructed the STAE directors in the four municipalities to proceed with the selection of the members of polling station staff (MMVs) for the elections of 10 December. Loló ordered that the selection should be based on those MMVs who had the best performance in the elections of 11 October. In his instructions, the General Director of STAE ordered that no MMV accused of committing electoral crimes on 11 October should be selected. But in practice, during the elections the MMVs simply received instructions from the STAE district directors and from the chairs of the district elections commissions. That is, the problem is not the MMVs, but the politicization of the electoral bodies at district level.
For example, on the eve of the 11 October elections, this Bulletin denounced a scheme whereby the Matola City STAE selected MMVs based on a list drawn up by Frelimo. From the list, it is possible to see that the chairs, deputy chairs, secretaries and first scrutineers are people secretly indicated by Frelimo.
The selection of the MMVs in the four municipalities should be concluded by 4 December.
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Given a post as a STAE head – as a reward for electoral misconduct
The director of the Namarrói Secondary School, which is 345 km from Quelimane, was one of several prominent Frelimo people recruited to occupy a post of polling station chair in Quelimane, in his case at Coalane school. Knowing Renamo would win, Frelimo instructed them not to sign the polling station results sheets (editais), which would mean the parties did not have official copies and it would be easier to create fake editais.
In the early morning of 12 October, the school head refused to sign the edital at his polling station. He tried to flee, but he was neutralised, grabbed and assaulted by members of the opposition, as is clear in this video. The video also shows the blackboard on which the vote count is written, showing the Renamo win.
This week he was rewarded with an appointment as the district director of STAE in Ile, in Zambézia province.
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Académica to charge $390,000 for election materials, bringing total bill for rerun to $734,000
The State will have to spend 47 million meticais ($734,000) to organise new elections in the four municipalities where the Constitutional Council annulled the first vote because of the electoral crimes committed by the leaders of the electoral bodies. Of this amount, 24.9 million meticais ($390,000) is going to Academica, without a tender, because that company had produced the polling station kits with ballot papers, etc for the original elections. Académica is a company belonging to the Sidat family, which is very influential within Frelimo, and which usually wins the public tenders for elections.
The remaining 22 million meticais ($343,000), as we reported in Bulletin 187, is for transport and communication and other expenses. The electoral fraud has forced new elections costing $734,000, but the authors of the crimes remain unpunished and will organise new elections in their respective municipalities.
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