CNE has 6% of the money

The global cost of Mozambique’s electoral cycle for the years 2022 to 2025 is budgeted at just over 18.7 billion meticais, according to a National Elections Commission document seen by ‘O País’. Of that amount, the budget for 2022 is estimated at around 3.2 billion meticais. According to the CNE, around 1.2 billion meticais is currently available for the preparatory phase, which includes voter registration. This represents a shortfall of just over two billion meticais.

 “We still lack two thirds of the amount needed for preparatory activities,” the CNE document reads. For the 2023 financial year, the budget foreseen by the CNE is around 6.7 billion meticais, with more than 8.7 billion meticais needed for 2024-2025.

“We are working with the Government to find a way to address this situation, including the chronic problem of the lack of adequate facilities for the National Elections Commission at central level,” the CNE report adds.

According to the same source, the costs of the electoral process “will be exacerbated by the need to observe health protocols in preparations, voter registration and voting [itself]. We are interacting with the Ministry of Health to see how we can carry out all our activities without major risk to voters and everyone involved in the process”. Voter registration (from scratch) for the country’s sixth municipal elections will take place from 20 February to 5 April, 2023, under a decree recently approved by the Council of Ministers. Municipal elections are scheduled for the 11th of October next year, and the general and district elections for 2024. Mozambique’s last municipal elections, which happen at five-year intervals, took place in 53 municipalities on October 10th, 2018.