The Center for Public Integrity, through its CIP elections bulletin, reveals that the National Electoral Commission (CNE) promoted the defeat of the Renamo party in five municipalities in the country through the theft of 180,000 votes and the addition of ghost voters.

By comparing the results presented by the CNE and the parallel count by civil society and political parties, the document indicates that in Maputo city the CNE's cheating is more evident.

In that municipality, the CNE is said to have eliminated around 60,000 Renamo votes, and added 13,000 phantom votes to the results, around two percent, "who all voted for Frelimo". "So we're dealing with more than 73,000 fraudulent votes - a pretty big pile."

In the parallel count, Renamo won 198,207 votes (55%), against 132,850 votes for Frelimo (37%), out of a total of 375,053 voters. The CNE data indicates that 412,564 voters voted, with Renamo getting 135,411 votes (34%) and Frelimo 235,506 votes (59%).

The scenario is equally blatant in the city of Matola, where "85,000 Renamo votes were simply handed over to Frelimo".

The parallel count shows that, in a universe of 343,907 voters, Renamo won 190,433 votes (59%), against 110,536 votes for Frelimo (34%). The CNE results show 383,791 voters, with 190,867 (36%) voting for Renamo, and 207,261 voting for Frelimo (57%).

In the city of Nampula, the parallel count left the results of three polling stations to be verified. It indicates a total of 165,345 voters, with 75,492 (48%) voting for Renamo and 70,402 (44%) for Frelimo. But the CNE counted 165,302 votes, with Renamo getting 65,985 (42%) and Frelimo 82,285 (52%).

The NGO says that 10,000 votes were taken from Renamo and secretly given to Frelimo, including around 2,000 votes from the MDM and other parties.

In Chiúre, Cabo Delgado, the parallel count shows the party re-elected. Of the 25,635 voters, Renamo won 11,818 votes (50%) and Frelimo 10,968 votes (47%). The CNE counted 27,098 voters and gave Renamo 11,766 votes (47%) and Frelimo 12,503 (50%).

"Here the race was close, with Renamo leading by less than 1000 votes. Miraculously, turnout increased by 2% after the polls closed, and 1500 phantom voters all voted for Frelimo, which was enough to give it the victory," says CIP Eleições.

In all four cases, the changes were made at local level and the CNE merely rubber-stamped the results of the municipal/district electoral commissions.

For the Quelimane municipality, the theft was twofold, at local and central level.

The parallel count shows a total of 70,674 voters, with Renamo receiving 34,268 (53%) votes and Frelimo 28,257 (43%) votes. The CDE counted 81,952 voters, of whom 35,087 (46%) voted for Renamo and 38,595 (50%) for Frelimo. For its part, the central CNE counted 83,511 voters, who voted for Renamo 36,393 (47%) and Frelimo 38,492 (49%).

The district electoral commission found 10,000 extra votes and gave them to Frelimo. Then the National Electoral Commission found another 1,500 phantom voters and decided that they had voted for Renamo and MDM.

The election bulletin notes that "The tabulations made by the municipal, district and national electoral commissions are secret and their records are not kept".