Munhava ballot boxes were empty, not fraudulent

Malate told a Beira press conference on Thursday that the ballot boxes were unloaded from a truck that had been distributing election material, and far from containing pre-marked ballot papers as rumoured at the time, they were empty.

The ballot boxes were unloaded by the roadside, and the STAE employee picked them up to put them in another car. But Munhava voters who saw the boxes immediately assumed that fraud was being prepared, and attacked the man (who Malate did not name).

“This is a situation which occurred accidentally”, said Malate. “He is a member of our team who appeared there with empty ballot boxes”.

The police, who rescued the man from the angry voters, informed the CPE who sent a team to Munhava. Together with representatives of the main political parties (the ruling Frelimo Party, the former rebel movement Renamo, and the Mozambique Democratic Movement, MDM) they clarified matters.

Malate insisted that the boxes were just spares. They were empty and were just available in case there was a need to replace any damaged ballot box.

But it was certainly the height of irresponsibility to leave ballot boxes, no matter how innocent and empty, by the roadside, accompanied by just one minor official, and with no attempt made to inform the political parties.

Malate tried to justify the extraordinarily long delays in opening many polling stations in Beira. He said this was because the electoral bodies in Sofala distributed the election material first to the outlying districts, and left Beira until last.

His excuse makes no sense given that centrally STAE and the CNE had insisted that the logistics were all under control and that all the vehicles and other transport resources were on hand to ensure that every polling station in the country could open on time, at 07.00 on Wednesday.

But in Beira a significant number of the city’s 358 polling stations did not open until 13.00 or 14.00. This meant that thousands of voters, who had left their homes early to vote, spent the entire morning, and in many cases the entire afternoon as well, outside the stations – including elderly people, disabled voters, and women with young children.

But Malate dismissed their discomfort, with the argument that everyone who was in the queues was able to vote. The polling stations were supposed to close at 18.00, but everyone still in the queues at that time, was given a numbered ticket, and the voting continued until the last person with a ticket had cast their ballots.