During the first 25 days, STAE is to organize musical festivals, drama and other activities aiming at raising awareness among the population to the need of registering as voters if they are to exercise their right in the first Provincial Assembly elections on 16 January 2008, in the Municipal elections later the same year, and in presidential and legislative elections in 2009.
Leopoldo da Costa, CNE chairperson, led the ceremonies urging the civil society to register as voters to exercise their rights in the forthcoming elections.
Voters' registration will run for the next three months, and will involve 2050 agents across the country, who will mobilize and sensitize the citizens to participate in the process.
According to Leopoldo da Costa, the voter's registration "is one of the pre-conditions for any citizen to participate in the forthcoming elections, starting with the provincial elections on 16 January 2008, which will be followed by the municipal elections later in the 2008 and the general elections in 2009".
Voter's registration has been budgeted at 16 million USD, while the total cost of the first provincial elections has been put at 33 million USD.
"We are not the only ones with the responsibility of carrying out civic education. This should also be done by those who are aware of the importance of this exercise", said Leopoldo da Costa, urging the people to spread this message at home, in the marketplace, schools, and hospitals and among other places.
"As from today, we have to spread this information to those all who are not yet aware of the importance of this process", said Leopoldo da Costa.
Meanwhile, the Technical Secretariat for Elections Administration (STAE) estimates that about 10.5 million voters, aged over 18 or to reach this age by the election date, due on 16 January 2008, will be registered during this period.
Civic education campaign is also to take place in all electoral organs, including all electoral institutions at provincial and district levels.
STAE has already completed the first phase of training of the members of the electoral organs at provincial and district levels, where the participants were taught about voter registration and the electoral legislation.
Training of members of the brigades, who are to work in voter registration, is due to start in most provinces this weekend, where they will learn about the electoral process and the use of the respective equipments and also the inspection of the process, among other issues.
STAE is planning to train more than 13,500 people who are to work directly in the electoral process, and to create 4,462 voter registration posts and 3,242 brigades across the country.
This represents a 30 per cent increase if compared with the last voter registration, in 2004, when there were 2,494 brigades that registered about nine million voters.
STAE justifies this increase with the need to bring the brigades closer to the people, to prevent potential voters from walking long distances to register.
SOURCE: AIM
