This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS MAPUTO 000267
SIPDIS
STATE FOR AF/S
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL MZ ESF
SUBJECT: Mozambique: Request for FY 2004 ESF funding
REF: STATE 33230
1. Summary: Post requests USD 700,000 for support for
transparency of the 2004 National Elections. This election
support will build on successful observation and parallel
vote tabulation coordinated by Carter Center in The November
2003 municipal elections. End Summary.
2. Mozambique's third Presidential and legislative
elections must be held by December 2004. The December 1999
elections were marred by lack of transparency in the
official tabulation process. As a result, opposition parties
did not accept the election results, leading to political
tensions and violence, and ultimately to the death of more
than hundred people in November 2000. Ensuring the fairness
and transparency of the 2004 elections is of vital concern
for political stability and development of democracy in
Mozambique, a central MPP goal.
3. ESF funding used in the 2003 local elections, through
support to Carter Center and a consortium of local civil
society organizations, yielded positive results. The
presence of US-funded civil society election observers
helped prevent electoral officials from carrying out
documented electoral fraud in the second largest city, which
was won by the main opposition party. The USG-funded
parallel vote tabulation (PVT) exercise also helped right a
mis-tabulated result in another municipality, giving the
opposition a fifth mayoral position. Post believes that
assisting Mozambican civil society to setup and run an
effective election observation and PVT exercise will be a
crucial contribution to the transparency of the process.
4. Costs associated with technical assistance to set up the
observation and PVT methodology, database, and analysis for
the 2004 national elections are already covered by a grant
to the Carter Center with FY 2003 ESF funding. Post requests
USD 700,000 for the field implementation of the observation
and PVT exercise by local organizations, to be obligated and
managed by USAID and implemented by Mozambican partners.
5. This funding would finance the recruitment, training,
and deployment of a total of 930 observers who will monitor
the electoral process and conduct a PVT. Besides the
manpower, PVT costs include communication costs to transmit
by telephone or fax collected election results from selected
polling stations to an operations center in Maputo.
Specifically, 500 short-term domestic observers will be
recruited and trained throughout the country to observe the
electoral campaign period and the voting; 30 medium-term
domestic observers will be deployed in political hotspots
throughout the country to monitor election-related disputes
and conflicts four months before the election date; and an
additional 400 observers will join the short-term observers
on voting day to help cover 900 sampled polling stations (10
percent of the total) around the country to collect the
results from the tally sheets posted outside the polling
stations to conduct the PVT.
LA LIME