Mozambique Elections 264-265 – 20 May 2024
Everyone knows calendar is wrong, but CC and CNE refuse to admit it
The CNE and CC are giving parties the wrong dates to submit candidates for the 9 October elections. The law approved by parliament three weeks ago, on 30 April, has still not been approved by the President and officially published in Boletim da República (BR). And the CNE and CC are so obsessed with secrecy that they refuse to say the calendar will be changed as soon as the law is published. The CNE continues to insist that candidates for national parliament (Assembleia da República, AR) must be submitted by 10 June, the old date, even though the AR said this should be 25 June. The Constitutional Council repeats the same 10 June date for presidential candidates.
Indeed, dates published by the CNE are now a mix of new and old, creating total confusion.
The new laws specify that all candidates lists must be submitted 106 days before the election, 25 June. But the old laws required candidates lists 120 days before for AR elections (10 June) which is the date cited by the CNE, but only 90 days before provincial assembly elections (11 July), which is never mentioned by the CNE. Perhaps this is because no one can figure out how to reduce the time to present candidates lists by 16 days.
The number of candidates which parties must submit depends on the number of assembly seats which in turn depends of registration which in turn was delayed to be after the rainy season. In the old law, still in force, the required number of seats must be published 180 days before the election (which passed while registration was still under way). The new law sets 120 days (10 June).
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Registration interrupted in Quissanga because of insurgent threats
Voter registration has not finished in Quissanga district, Cabo Delgado. On 14 May, the registration brigades in the Mahate administrative post (Indigue, Namange, Nacoba and Natugo) were obliged to cancel the registration and evacuate the voter registration machines to Pemba city. This meant that many people were unable to register.
On Wednesday (15 May), many potential voters arrived at the registration posts in the district capital to register, but without success since the equipment was already in the cars, ready to be evacuated to Pemba. This infuriated the potential voters.
Thus the voter registration ended before the promised date of 15 May, which left many people unable to register.
Many registered voters have still not received their voter cards.
The reason for the early cancellation of the registration is the insurgent incursion into areas that border on Quissanga district. On Tuesday (14 May), the insurgents entered Nanduli village, located in Ancuabe district, and bordering on the Bilibiza administrative post, in Quissanga district.
This caused the cancellation of the voter registration in Bilibiza. The two brigades that were operating in the Bilibiza administrative post, one in the 19 October village, and the other in Lindi, were withdrawn. (The full bulletin in pdf is on https://bit.ly/Moz-El-264)
