The Frelimo party used fraudulent methods to secure a massive victory in several Mozambican municipalities in the VI municipal elections, with the support of the electoral bodies and the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM), according to the Mais Integridade electoral consortium, which announced the results today in Maputo.

Speaking to journalists, the president of the electoral observers, Edson Cortês, listed the schemes from their inception. He began by recalling that it all started with the electoral register, where some entities were obliged to register.

"During the registration process there were constant breakdowns of the registration mobiles where the ruling party didn't have a majority; there were blatant offenses of people moving from non-authorized areas to register in municipalities where the ruling party wasn't comfortable with its majority; the production of priority lists made up of Frelimo members and sympathizers, and these lists made up the first electoral rolls for tables 1 and 2," he said, noting that the tables with this numbering were, for the most part, throughout the country, the ones with the highest turnout "because they were the tables with people nominated by the Frelimo party".

In addition, the consortium revealed that the party had resorted to the "old method" of stuffing ballot boxes, and that there were even cases where the total number of votes exceeded the number of voters previously planned.

"It was something seen all over the country. Our observers saw this," including polling station observers linked to the Frelimo party and PRM agents. "And we have evidence of ballot boxes where the number of votes is higher than the number of voters and when you add up the votes in Nampula province, it's clear that it's higher than the number of existing voters."

Another method was the accreditation of election observers which, according to the observers, was designed to undermine the process. The credentials were made available late, supposedly due to a lack of printing toner. But also, "the observers were banned from observing because the police and polling station presidents, as well as demanding a badge, wanted a CNE/STAE credential. This is absurd. They were expelled and told that observation should not be fixed, but mobile," contrary to the law.

Frelimo is said to have taken advantage of a CNE/STAE directive that allowed people without voter registration cards to vote, as long as their name was on the list, including people with cards but no name on the list.

"Within the same school there were presidents who accepted this directive and others who did not. The double standards ended up harming voters, taking away their chance to vote," he notes.

"We can't see a CNE/STAE chain of command. What is said in Maputo, by these bodies, in the provinces has no value", he said, pointing to the fact that the Provincial Electoral Commissions and the Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration "are sent by the first secretaries and heads of the central brigades of the Frelimo party".

The PRM was complicit in the manipulation of notices, having taken ballot boxes and their notices to prevent counting. The presidents of the polling stations did not start counting the votes without the guidance of STAE, who arrived late at night.

"Our observation shows that there were several steps, a well-designed roadmap for the fraud of these local elections. And when all the steps failed, there was still the possibility that STAE and CNE, having the materials, could change the outcome of the elections," he concluded.