In mid-May, the CNE announced that 10,697,245 citizens had registered as voters, which was 87.7 per cent of the estimated potential electorate of 12,203,727.
But it now turns out that this definitive figure was not definitive at all. Adding together all the figures from the 4,078 registration brigade set up by the CNE’s executive body, the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE), now gives a total registration figure of 10,874,328, or 89.1 per cent of the target.
In all 11 provinces, this recounting has led to an increase, by a few thousand, and in some cases a few tens of thousands, of the number of registered voters. The largest increase was in the central province of Zambezia. In May, there were 1.87 million voters in Zambezia – but now the CNE gives the number as 1.95 million, an increase of about 80,000.
Province by province, the CNE gives the new final registration figures as follows:
1. Niassa – 615,065 (81.72 per cent of the target)
2. Cabo Delgado – 964,071 (103.15 per cent)
3. Nampula – 2,079,129 (85.03 per cent)
4. Zambezia – 1,948,859 (88.63 per cent)
5. Tete – 971,644 (86.45 per cent)
6. Manica – 712,938 (85.57 per cent)
7. Sofala – 926,746 (98.95 per cent)
8. Inhambane – 598,276 (86.17 per cent)
9. Gaza – 591,194 (89.9 per cent)
10. Maputo province – 757,594 (85.08 per cent)
11. Maputo city – 708,812 (96.29 per cent).
Parliamentary seats are allocated in proportion to the number of registered voters per constituency. The new count gives the following breakdown of seats (the number of seats in the current parliament is shown in brackets):
1. Niassa – 14 (14)
2. Cabo Delgado – 22 (22)
3. Nampula – 47 (45)
4. Zambezia – 45 (43)
5. Tete – 22 (20)
6. Manica – 16 (16)
7. Sofala – 21 (20)
8. Inhambane – 14 (16)
9. Gaza – 14 (16)
10. Maputo Province – 17 (16)
11. Maputo City – 16 (18)
Compared with the figures announced in May Nampula has lost two seats and Sofala has lost one. Zambezia has gained two seats and Gaza has gained one. There is no change in the number of seats allocated to the other seven provinces.
Two seats are allocated to Mozambicans living abroad – one for Africa and one for “the rest of the world”, although in reality registration and voting covers just two countries outside Africa, namely Portugal and Germany.
In the diaspora, more Mozambicans registered as voters than expected. For Africa, the registration figure reached 89,985, much higher than the target of 55,206. Mozambicans can vote in seven African countries, and the numbers registered in each are as follows:
South Africa – 47,994 (122.49 per cent of the target)
Swaziland – 5,650 (193.26 per cent)
Zimbabwe – 9,201 (354.84 per cent)
Malawi – 9,025 (514.97 per cent)
Zambia – 1,991 (181.16 per cent)
Tanzania – 12,276 (204.06 per cent)
Kenya – 848 (110.27 per cent)
As for the two European countries, the numbers registered are:
Portugal – 1,285 (151.53 per cent)
Germany – 550 (179.74 per cent).
The voter registration is also used to calculate the number of seats in the ten provincial assemblies. The law on the provincial assemblies states that when a province has 400,000 registered voters or fewer, the assembly has 50 seats. When the number of voters is between 400,000 and half a million, the number of seats rises to 60. Where there are between 500,000 and 600,000 registered voters, the Assembly has 70 members. The number of seats rises to 80 in provinces where there are between 600,000 and 700,000 votes. In provinces with more than 700,000 voters, the Assemblies grow by one seat for every additional 100,000 voters. So the number of seats in the provincial assemblies to be elected on 15 October will be as follows:
1. Niassa – 80
2. Cabo Delgado – 82
3. Nampula – 93
4. Zambezia – 92
5. Tete – 82
6. Manica – 80
7. Sofala – 82
8. Inhambane – 70
9. Gaza – 70
10. Maputo province – 80
Maputo City does not have a provincial assembly, since it is the only one of the 11 provinces whose entire territory is covered by a municipal assembly.
Post published in: Africa News