Teachers and other civil servants cannot be paid as polling station staff (MMVs), at the risk of almost all polling stations being illegal. The Law on Public Probity (12/2024 art. 33b) prohibits "the holder or member of a public body [from] receiving remuneration from other public institutions".
Although this is in the law revised this year, it has been true for a decade and was also in article 32 of the previous law (16/2012). MMVs are paid positions.
Paulo Cuinica, spokesman for the National Electoral Commission (CNE), said on Saturday that the CNE still doesn't have the money to pay the MMVs. He was speaking on a "phone-in" program on Radio Mozambique.
This could be the solution - that the MMVs work without pay. Law 9/024, which establishes the electoral administration, says that "the National Electoral Commission is a state body" and "the Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration is a public service". Therefore, it is obvious that they cannot pay additional money to teachers and other civil servants to be MMVs.
This restriction on MMVs went unnoticed, having been ignored, but with pressure from Frelimo to have its people running all the polling stations, Podemos investigated the matter and discovered that they cannot be paid.
In all districts, the majority of polling station staff are civil servants, most of them school principals and their pedagogues, teachers, heads of desks and other state technicians.
In Zavala, in Inhambane, nearly 30 principals and deputy principals are trainers, in addition to a considerable number of MMV'S-trained teachers.
In addition to the education sector, it was possible to see the integration of civil servants (health, municipal and district governments, and various services). There are more than 1,200 MMVs in training in Zavala district, Inhambane province. In Tambara, Manica, Frelimo has filled the majority of a total of 300 vacancies for MMVs from the public tender. The majority are civil servants.
In the district of Derre, in Zambézia, Júlio Cardoso Júlio, principal of Namuno Basic School, and Guido Floriano Augusto, principal of the same school, are among the candidates shortlisted for the MMV vacancies. Both have not been interviewed, but will be trained as MMVs, along with some teachers. This situation will lead to their absence from school for 15 days.
At the Ehiline Basic School in Rapale, Nampula, the students have practically no lessons because the classrooms are full due to the MMV training. Many teachers and their staff are undergoing MMV training. The principal of the school is the director of the CDE and the pedagogical director is campaigning for Frelimo.
At Rapale Secondary School, students are out of class because the teachers are trainers and other trainees are MMVs.
In the district of Mossuril, most schools are closed on Monday because most of the teachers are taking part in MMV training. In Muecate, also in Nampula, Metepo Basic School is completely closed because the principals and teachers are in training to become MMVs.
Last week, the Central STAE annulled the public tender to hire MMV provincial trainers due to evidence of manipulation to benefit the Frelimo party. (Text: CIP Eleições)
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