Cited in Friday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias", Carrasco said this figure includes the costs of voter registration and the installation of new computer equipment for the electoral bodies. STAE has already sent a draft budget for this sum to the government.
Speaking in Maputo, at the opening of a meeting of the STAE Consultative Council, Carrasco sounded the alarm. "We must remember that we are talking about re-registering the entire electorate", he said. "Things are not going to be as easy as one might imagine".
The figure only covers the provincial elections - there is no budget yet for the municipal elections scheduled for 2008, or the presidential and parliamentary elections that should take place in 2009.
Carrasco was concerned that STAE might have to register the electorate before the general population census, scheduled for August.
For it was the census that would give the accurate figure of how large the potential electorate (Mozambicans aged 18 and above) is. From the census STAE would know how many people it should register and where they all are.
"But if STAE has to do the registration before the census, then we will have to work with approximate projections, and not with real numbers", protested Carrasco.
Asked whether it was possible to hold the provincial elections this year, Carrasco was cautious. "We're still working on the planning", he said, "and only afterwards will we be able to say anything. We're still studying the laws (the heavily amended electoral legislation passed in December) and then we will see whether it is possible, within these laws, to hold the elections for provincial assemblies this year".
The Consultative Council, he added, was looking into the deadlines fixed by law, and after that the participants will work out a number of scenarios and submit them to the National Elections Commission (CNE).
Except that there is no CNE. Under the new laws, the CNE is to consist of 13 people, eight chosen by Mozambican civil society organisations, and five by the political parties represented in parliament (three by the ruling Frelimo Party, and two by the opposition Renamo-Electoral Union coalition).
Frelimo and Renamo have selected their candidates, but they have yet to be voted on by parliament. A jury was set up by some of the most prominent civil society organisations (including all the main religions), and there are now at least 25 people whose names have been submitted and from whom the jury must choose eight.
At this pace, it seems unlikely that the CNE can be up and running before the end of this month.
As for computerisation, Carrasco insisted that modern technologies must be used in voter registration (despite Renamo's hostility towards computers).
"STAE is not going to return to the Stone Age", he said.
"The whole world uses these technologies, and Mozambique cannot be outside these developments".
SOURCE: AIM
