ZANU PF is reportedly registering thousands of Zimbabweans to vote in Mozambique’s presidential and parliamentary elections that will take place on October 9, 2024.
According to The Mirror, three of its reporters are among hundreds of Zimbabweans registered and issued plastic voter’s registration cards at a registration station at Nemamwa Growth Point on Tuesday this week. Nemamwa is just 25km South-east of Masvingo.
Gloria Salvador, a spokesperson for RENAMO, Mozambique’s biggest opposition party, said they are aware of the vote-rigging and are currently in Zimbabwe investigating the matter.
Salvador was cited as saying her party already had some of the evidence supporting the alleged rigging machinations.
Mozambique held local authority elections on October 23 won by the ruling party FRELIMO. The results were contested as rigged resulting in violent demonstrations.
The Mirror reported sources as saying the registration process at Nemanwa started on Monday, April 22 and is expected to run until April 28.
Long winding queues characterise the voter registration process and aspiring candidates are put on the waiting list and told to return the next day.
The desks used in the registration rooms were inscribed “ZANU PF”.
RENAMO’s aspiring Presidential candidate, Venancio Mondlane said he was in a meeting when The Mirror contacted him for a comment. He said:
I am in a video call meeting. We can talk as soon as I finish.
He, however, was not picking phone when The Mirror later contacted him.
FRELIMO representative, Samuel Jemua dismissed the vote rigging claims and said Mozambican nationals abroad are allowed to register to vote wherever they are. Said Jemua:
People are lying. All those registering are Mozambicans. Mozambicans can vote from all over the world, whether they are in Italy, Spain or America.
Mozambique’s elections are run by the National Election Commission (CNE) and the Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE).
CNE chairperson Bispo Carlos Matsinhe told The Mirror that registering Zimbabweans is a mistake when contacted for a comment.
Unlike Zimbabwe, Mozambique allows its citizens in the Diaspora to vote.
Zimbabweans who are registering to vote in Mozambique are being told that they are getting Mozambican IDs so that they will be able to freely travel in and out of Mozambique to buy old clothes for resale.
However, others boasted that they were Zimbabweans and that they had always been voting in Mozambican elections.
They were being issued with plastic cards written in Portuguese and many people don’t even realise that these are voter registration cards.
The Mirror could not get a comment from ZANU PF spokesperson, Christopher Mutsvangwa as his phone went unanswered.
ZANU PF communications director, Farai Marapira said his party cannot be involved in such an undemocratic programme and referred all questions to Mutsvangwa.
The voter registration exercise is not limited to Nemamwa alone but is also happening in other parts of the country.
Zimbabwe’s main opposition politician Nelson Chamisa said he was shocked but not surprised it was coming from ZANU PF and FRELIMO. He said:
It’s shocking but not surprising. This is massive rigging of encyclopaedic magnitude. It’s a clear electoral manipulation through ballot box stuffing.
MDC-T leader Douglas Mwonzora who boycotted last year’s presidential election alleging rigging, warned Zimbabweans against meddling with Mozambique’s internal politics. Said Mwonzora:
It is unfair if Zimbabwean authorities are interfering with Mozambican elections. Mozambicans have the duty to choose their own leaders. This touches at the core of Mozambique’s sovereignty.
Zimbabwean authorities must stop whatever they are doing because it is not fair to the people in Mozambique.
Precious Gwangwava (56) one of the villagers who registered to vote, said she voted at Nemanwa in 2019, but this time she wants to travel and vote in Mozambique.
Robina Mudura (58) who is originally from Dande, near Mozambique, said he will vote for the ruling party so that he will be able to go to Mozambique to buy goods for resale in the next five years.
FRELIMO, the party that has been in power since Mozambique attained independence from Portugal in 1975, has yet to name its presidential candidate.
The incumbent, President Filipe Nyusi is constitutionally barred from running after serving his second and final term.
Nyusi is, however, rumoured to be seriously considering a third term. His preferred successor though is Carlos Ismael Correia.
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