Voter Education Campaign Launched 16.10.2003   A Mozambican NGO, the Civic Education Institute (FECIV), on Thursday officially launched its voter education campaign, aimed at ensuring a large turnout during the municipal elections scheduled for 19 November.

A Mozambican NGO, the Civic Education Institute (FECIV), on Thursday officially launched its voter education campaign, aimed at ensuring a large turnout during the municipal elections scheduled for 19 November.

The campaign aims to reverse the trend of the 1998 local elections when turn-out was appallingly low: only 14.7 per cent of the municipal electorate bothered to vote.

Various reasons were given for this - including the boycott of the election by most opposition parties, a poor level of voter education, lack of understanding of decentralisation and of the powers of municipalities, and disgraceful disorganisation on polling day itself, with many polling stations opening hours late.

The executive director of FECIV, Justina Cumbe, told AIM that her organisation will spend about 450,000 US dollars on the campaign. This money will be used on radio and television programmes, and FECIV has also built stalls that will serve as information centres in all 33 municipalities.

FECIV plans to distribute 100,000 posters bearing the slogan "Vote - Strengthen your Municipality", and 200,000 leaflets with basic information on the voting. 10,000 training manuals covering various themes on municipal affairs will also be distributed.