The European Union (EU) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have announced that they will disburse 1.1 million dollars for the implementation of a project aimed at strengthening democracy and electoral processes in Mozambique.
In a statement, both institutions said that the project will run until December 2025 and has “particular emphasis” in the context of the 9 October general elections (presidential, legislative, provincial assemblies and provincial governors) and the post-election period.
According to the organisations, the funding will make it possible to strengthen the technical capacities of the main electoral players, with a view to promoting credible and inclusive electoral processes and increasing transparency, facilitating the public disclosure and sharing of information by the Electoral Management Bodies with the electorate.
“We intend to foster improved planning of operations and processes during the electoral cycle, including crisis management such as natural disasters, security threats and political violence, which will contribute to improving the effectiveness and transparency of electoral dispute resolution mechanisms,” they emphasised.
The financial support for this project joins that of other international partners, namely the governments of Norway, Canada, Spain and Germany.
In February, the European Union guaranteed that it would have observers at the Mozambican general elections.
Mozambique is holding general elections on 9 October this year, including presidential elections, for which the current head of state, Filipe Nyusi, can no longer run because he has reached the constitutional limit of two terms in office.
Recently, the National Electoral Commission (CNE) announced that this year’s general elections will cost almost 20 billion meticais. “The updated budget to support the costs of holding the seventh general, presidential and legislative elections and the fourth for members of the provincial assemblies and the provincial governor is 19.9 billion meticais,” said the organisation.
The document revealed that more than 6.5 billion of this amount has already been made available, and preparations are already underway for voter registration, which will take place between 15 March and 28 April throughout the country and between 30 March and 28 April abroad.
