Mozambique voter registration snags

Mozambique: CNE Blames South African Company
AllAfrica.com - Washington,USA
Mozambique's National Elections Commission (CNE) may hold the South African company that supplied computer equipment for the current voter registration responsible for the delays and breakdowns that have characterised the work ever since it began, on 24 September.Speaking to Mozambican Television (TVM), CNE spokesperson Juvenal Bucuane recognised the constraints facing the voter registration brigades, but suggested the South African company was to blame ... The tender to supply the equipment was launched in June and the contract was awarded to a consortium formed by the Mozambican company ELETC, and the South African firm First Technology. ELETC is led by the businessman Celso Correia whose INSITEC group recently acquired 19 per cent of the country's second largest commercial bank, the BCI-Fomento. The ELETC/First Technology consortium won the contract because its bid was the cheapest. Using the ELETC/First Technology materials, the cost of the voter registration was 15 million US dollars. The second ranked bid would have cost 50 million dollars ... They were allowed up until 23 September to provide the Mozambican electoral bodies with the computers - yet the registration was due to start on 24 September ...