The European Union (EU) will have observers at the Mozambican general elections in October this year, which include the choice of a new President, the president of the EU Political and Security Committee announced yesterday in Maputo.
The announcement was made by Ambassador Delphine Pronk, after an audience with the Mozambican Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Verónica Macamo, who addressed the invitation to the EU observation mission. “The Government requested our EU observation mission during the October elections.
And I would also like to salute Mozambican resilience and strength, the strength of democracy, the strength of institutions”, acknowledged Delphine Pronk, who is visiting Maputo, recalling the European Union’s financial support for cooperation programs with Mozambique.
Mozambique will hold general elections on October 9 this year, including presidential ones, in which the current head of state and leader of the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo, in power), Filipe Nyusi, can no longer compete, as he has reached the constitutional limit of two terms.
Questioned by Lusa, the president of the EU Political and Security Committee did not say what type of observation mission will be carried out in these general elections, nor how many members the mission will have: “I don’t know yet. So we have to evaluate, we will first send experts to Mozambique very soon.
And then we will also evaluate based on who needs it and what they ask for, and what we can deliver.” “But I think that the importance of electoral observation is recognized by both sides”, also acknowledged Delphine Pronk.
This year’s general elections in Mozambique, which follow the troubled municipal electoral process of October 2023, whose electoral results were strongly contested by opposition parties and civil society organizations, will cost almost 20 billion meticais (289 million euros ), announced this month the National Elections Commission (CNE).
“The updated budget to support the costs of holding the seventh general, presidential and legislative elections and the fourth for members of the provincial assemblies and the governor of the province, scheduled for October 9 of this year, is 19,993,186,146 meticais”, he said. the CNE, in a statement.
Of this amount, more than 6.5 billion (95 million euros) have already been made available, he added. The vote on October 9, which includes presidential, legislative, Provincial Assemblies and provincial governor elections, will take place simultaneously, across the entire national territory of the Republic of Mozambique and on a single day.
The CNE said that preparations are currently underway for the voter registration, which will take place between March 15th and April 28th in Mozambique and between March 30th and April 28th abroad.
The electoral body expects to register more than 7 million people this year, in a process that will involve the creation of, among others, 9,165 registration posts and 6,330 brigades, with the distribution, across the country, of part of the material for the process.
“Preparatory activities for voter registration are underway, with a projection of the number of voters expected to vote, that is, including those who registered when the local elections were held on October 11, 2023, is 16,497,501 voters ”, previously said Paulo Cuinica, CNE spokesperson during a press conference in Maputo. According to the spokesperson, of the total expected voters, 16,217,816 are in Mozambique and the remaining 279,685 abroad.