MAPUTO, 28 October 2009: Journalists from the website AllAfrica report a high turnout at the polls throughout the country today Wednedsday. At 11 am most polling stations still had long queues, often more than 50 people.
Most polling stations opened on time at 7 am or soon after, more than 80 of the journalists within mobile telephone range reported this morning.
Polling stations in a number of areas have not opened because register books were missing, including Meconta and Namialo, Nampula, and Machanga, Sofala. In Manjacaze, Gaza, and Moatize, Tete, some polling stations opened late.
A lot of the correspondents report a wide variation in the length of queues, which means a large differences in the speed with which people can vote, and the systems being used by polling station staff.
In general, the new procedures seen to be working, with a polling station staff member outside the classroom door with a copy of the register finding the name of the person on this list. The voter is told their sequence number, which they tell to the mesa secretary, making it easier to find and tick off their name on the official register.
But the variation was shown at the school in Unidade 18 in Maputo, where polling stations in some classrooms ran smoothly, while 0145 was in confusion with poorly organised queues and arguments at the door about who was next, which further delayed the voting. Eventually a policeman intervened, helping to sort out the queue as voters continued to argue about who was next.
Similarly in Beira, 009 Palmeiras had to close for 15 minutes because of trouble in the queue; police intervened. There are other reports of queue confusion and temporary closures in Quissico, Inhambane (0911) and Pemba Metuge (1050 and 1051)
Other than disorganisation in queues and a few polling stations lacking register books, our journalists have reported few other problems. In Chibuto, Gaza, in Chimundzo (polling stations 902 and 261) the neighbourhood secretary and a community leader were standing at the polling station door, pointing to the middle position on the sample ballot paper to tell people to vote for Armando Guebuza.
