Member of Parliament Antoninho Bianco has criticized the Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE) for its failure to ensure people in rural areas have voting cards.
The elderly and those with disabilities were the most likely not to have the cards, he said, as they were unable to make the lengthy walk to the sub-district administration office where the cards were distributed.
“We ask the STAE to visit the sukus and sub-villages so all people can have voting cards and they can exercise their electoral rights like all other citizens,” Bianco said at Parliament.
STAE general director Aquilino Manuel Branco said STAE had sent personnel to districts to verify voter registrations to prevent people collecting welfare benefits using the voting cards of deceased relatives.
Voter registration will take place again next year ahead of the elections in August.
