Officials: Voting to go Ahead in Mozambique's Volatile Cabo Delgado

By Charles Mangwiro

Maputo. Mozambique —

Election officials in Mozambique say voting will take place Wednesday in volatile Cabo Delgado province, despite threats from Islamic State militants who are active in the region.

Regina Matsinhe, the spokesperson for Mozambique’s Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration, or STAE, told VOA that plans have been made to ensure voting goes well in Cabo Delgado.

She said authorities are working with Cabo Delgado officials to ensure the safety of election workers, who are using several transportation options to make sure voting materials reach their intended destinations. Matsinhe said aerial means, sea boats, cattle-drawn carts, motorbikes and people will be used to carry materials from one point to another.

Cabo Delgado province has 1.4 million registered voters, nearly one-tenth of Mozambique’s 17 million voters. Those voters head to the polls Wednesday to elect the next president, parliament and provincial assemblies.

Last Friday, President Phillip Nyusi said tensions in Cabo Delgado province have eased in recent weeks after security forces carried out operations against insurgents, which included destroying camps and capturing propaganda equipment.

There were security concerns after the 16-member Southern African Development Community Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM) withdrew its 3,000-person force from Cabo Delgado in July, marking the end of its peacekeeping mission in the country.

However, Tanzanian troops remained and are fighting alongside Rwandan soldiers and Mozambican defense and security forces to contain the violence in Cabo Delgado.

This will be Mozambique’s seventh general election since a multiparty democracy was introduced in 1994, two years after the ruling Frelimo party signed a peace deal with Renamo rebels in Rome to end a 16-year civil war that killed approximately one million people.

Renamo has not won a national election since then, and Frelimo has ruled Mozambique since 1975, when the country won independence from Portugal.

The chairman of Mozambique’s National Election Commission, Carlos Matsinhe, told VOA in an exclusive interview that he is optimistic the election will proceed as planned throughout Cabo Delgado.

There are no signs that violence will prevent elections in any areas, Matsinhe said, “so we are just praying that the election takes place complete in Cabo Delgado, [and] the conditions are very promising.”

The election will be observed by several international organizations such as the European Union — which has sent a team of 150 — and a 52-member team from the Southern African Development Community that arrived in Maputo last Friday.

Counting will begin immediately after polling stations close Wednesday evening.