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Maputo – Twenty-six boxes of ballot papers to be used in local elections in Mozambique this month have been stolen from a truck, the country’s national election authority said on Monday. The boxes were taken while the vehicle transporting them from South Africa, where they had been printed, to the central Zambezia province, was parked while the driver and two policemen were taking a break.
“The truck had a driver and was accompanied by two police officers. They were not careful and did not obey the security norm which is to park or to pass the night inside a commando of the police of Mozambique,” the president of Mozambique’s National Election Commission (CNE) Abdul Carimo said on Monday.
The robbery, which election authorities believe took place on the night of September 30 in the town of Inchope in central Manica province, was only discovered after the truck arrived at its final destination with its security seals broken.
The driver and police guards have been arrested.
The missing ballots were to have been used during a vote for provincial assemblies to be held alongside presidential and national legislative polls on October 15. – AFP
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