Registering Interest Ahead Of Municipal Elections

With Maputo municipal elections scheduled for November 19, the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE) - the electoral branch of the Mozambican civil service - is currently undertaking a second round of voter registration. The previous, nationwide round, which lasted from September 24 2007 to March 15 this year, resulted in the registration of 88.3% of the estimated potential electorate of 10.2 million. Such active popular participation - as well as planned polling staff training - is encouraging. Given the overwhelming dominance of the ruling Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Frelimo), we do not anticipate the party needing to resort to significant foul play to ensure victory; indeed, while EU observers recorded fraudulent shortcomings in the 2004 presidential elections, these were found not to have affected the overall result.

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