Global Initiative to Enfranchise People with Disabilities: Mozambique - www.electionaccess.org
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Mozambique

General Right to Vote
Constitution
(2004)

  • Article 73 states, “The Mozambican people shall exercise political power through elections of their representatives by universal, direct, equal and periodic suffrage and by secret ballot, through referenda on major national issues, and through the permanent democratic participation of citizens in the affairs of the nation.”

Electoral Law
Law 7/2007 (governs elections of the President and National Assembly)
(2007)

  • Article 3 states, “The president of the Republic and the deputies of the House of Assembly are elected by Universal suffrage, direct, equal, secret, personal and periodical by the Mozambican citizens in terms of this present law.”
  • Article 4 states, “The suffrage constitutes an individual and inalienable right for a citizen.”

Specific Inclusion of People with Disabilities
Constitution
(2004)

  • Article 37 states: "Disabled citizens shall enjoy fully the rights enshrined in the Constitution and shall be subject to the same duties, with the exclusion of those rights and duties which their disability prevents them from undertaking."

Electoral Law
Law 9/2007 (governing voter registration)
(2007)

  • Article 31 states...
  • Subsection 1, “The directors of the Psychiatric health units of those constituencies with psychiatric people must remit monthly to the Technical Secretariat of electoral administration at district, city and national level a statement containing the citizens ID details referred in the article number 29, of those who having completed eighteen years of age are intern in the psychiatry unit but are not convicted by court and also remit an annual statement of those who during the registry period are in the same situation and are going to complete eighteen years of age until the end of the registry period.”
  • Subsection 2, “The same procedure must be adopted when the citizens referred in the previous number are discharged from the psychiatric units.”
  • Subection 3, “The Technical Secretariat at national level remit a statement of the respective cases referred in the previous number of this article to the districts and cities Technical Secretariat of Electoral Administration in which the referred are registered.”

Exclusion Based on Intellectual Disability
Electoral Law
Law 7/2007 (governs elections of the President and National Assembly)

  • Article 10, section (1) states: "Shall be electors the Mozambican citizens of both sexes, who at the date of the elections are aged 18 years or over, and who are regularly registered as electors and not affected by any of the incapacities mentioned in the present law."
  • Article 12 states, “Non voters are as follows...b. Those noteably recognized as demented, even if not interdicted by justice, when psychotic or declared so by a Medical Council.”

Voter Assistance
Electoral Laws
Law 7/2007 (governs elections of the President and National Assembly)
(2007)

  • Article 72, section 3 states, “the chairmans of the Polling Station will prioritize the following voters...d.) Disabled people...”
  • Article 75 states, “1. The blind and the disabled confirmed by the polling officers as incapable to vote, as described in the previous article, shall practice their voting right if accompanied by another voter freely chosen by himself, who can insure the voting secrecy. 2. If the polling officers do not confirm an individual as disabled, he will request with the act of voting a document issued by the competent entity confirming the incapacity of this individual in practicing the acts referred to in the previous article.”
  • Article 76 states, “Those who cannot read or write, incapable to make a cross in the blank square will vote by placing a fingers in the blank square or rectangular corresponding the candidate they chose, after pressing the fingers in the appropriated ink placed in the voting booth.”
  • The law’s glossery states, “Disabled voter is a person accompanied by a respected person in the community chosen by him to exercise his vote.”

Law 9/2007 (governing voter registration)
(2007)

  • Article 23, subsection 2 states, “In case of voter incapability to sign or press his finger due to a notable disability the fact must be registered by the census officials in the subscription form.”

Law 10/2007 (election of Provinicial Assemblies

  • Articles 78 section 3, article 81, and article 82 repeat verbatim the provisions of Law 7/2007 (Article 72 section 3, article 75, and article 76 respectively.)

Law 18/2007 (governing local elections)

  • Article 78 section 3, article 82, and article 83 repeat verbatim the provisions of Law 7/2007 (Article 72 section 3, article 75, and article 76 respectively).

 
 
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