Messages exchanged on the WhatsApp group "Supervisors of Beira" and in Ribáuè and Matola show how to manipulate the registration equipment, and are being used to prevent voter registration in areas with a significant number of opposition voters.

The WhatsApp messages between the supervisors and the district director of STAE in Beira allow us to conclude that a large part of the breakdowns are manipulated because the pattern of breakdowns is as follows:

For example, supervisor Linete asks her colleagues to standardize their machine handling techniques. She asks them to follow the technique she is using, informing undocumented voters that "the machine doesn't recognize witnesses and ballot papers, it's the machine's system" and not her. The voter then has no choice but to give up, aware that "the problem is the machine" and not the supervisor.

Another inspector explains the other technique he uses: "at the end of each citizen's registration, the computer first asks to record. Once the registration is finished, the next step is to print it out, simply by double-clicking on the image that appears in the corner". They don't explain what happens after the double click, but it's certainly a technique that benefits Frelimo, because in the next comment, Supervisor José acknowledges that "your experience is good, and thanks to that double click we're reaching a hundred and something (voters)".

The third technique is explained by supervisor JB when he says that after the Frelimo inspectors, with whom he coordinates, warned him that the largest number of voters in the queue "wasn't ours", "I turned off the machine and only started it again when the situation benefited us". He admits that he made the decision unilaterally, which could have cost him dearly. But "fortunately we now have that support" from the director.

Zília Nagimo's technique is different from that of the other supervisors: "At our post, when it's ours (referring to a Frelimo voter), we watch in silence: the supervisor and the operator, or the two operators, which is me and the typist, so as not to give a signal" as the opposition.

The district director of STAE in Beira congratulates his colleagues, whom he calls "family", because "the enemy [the opposition] is already afflicted, but we have to keep attacking". And he orders the supervisors to "only accept witnesses and ballot papers" if this is for the benefit of Frelimo. In response, JB confirms: "Therefore, if it is to benefit our people, I will resume the practice." Supervisor JB thanked his director for his guidance and said: "It was worth the endorsement (from the director) because, in fact, I had already stopped accepting witnesses [to identify the people registering, as the law allows] after seeing that the only people bringing people without documents were the MDM and Renamo inspectors and the neighborhood, unit and block secretaries," who, in Beira, are from the MDM and not Frelimo. According to Supervisor JB, the neighborhood, unit and block secretaries "were almost camped outside the registration office".

He announced that, in addition to having abolished witnesses and ballot papers on his own initiative, he had also taken another decision to prevent opposition voters from registering: rejecting the voter cards of non-Beiraño individuals. He only accepted them if they were for the benefit of Frelimo.

JB proudly reports to the group that "The enemy has already realized that in my post it is impossible, so much so that the floods have subsided and I have noticed the influx of residents from the constituency."

In another communication, JB informs the director that the floods are decreasing because they [opposition voters] have already realized that they won't register through these two channels [witnesses and notes]" and makes a suggestion to his director: "but we can relax, because we have reliable information that the floods will start again, but this time they will bring a receipt for an ID application. So they're asking for ID cards en masse. The enemy is cunning."

The blocking of opposition voters ended up also affecting Frelimo voters, who were confused with those of the opposition parties. This worried supervisor Mateus Capondo, who warned others to step up their collaboration with the Frelimo party inspectors.

"There are supervisors who are rotating comrades in the census posts because they don't know where they're coming from and I also think it's because of a lack of communication," reveals Mateus Capondo, who reports having received "five comrades who have left another post".

"This kind of incident can happen" because "in this kind of cleaning [of opposition voters], one will always escape, especially when the supervisor doesn't know ours from the area where he is based". And he suggests that "you have to communicate a lot with the supervisor and pay close attention". He warns that this exercise "is not easy, but it is possible".

Gisela Patrício developed the technique of "sleeping at the computer". But, before explaining what the technique consists of, she says that "in the first few hours", her registration office "was 'full' or in a group in our favor, but around 2pm the scene changed" and the queue was full of opposition voters. To block them out, "I asked the inspector to go out and check the queue to make sure they were ours or not". The inspector agreed. When he returned, the inspector informed the supervisor that "most of them were not ours". So "I sent the typist to sleep at the computer. I mean, it took longer to register a voter, even though I knew there were one and two of us in the queue." In the end, he says he asked the inspector to go and identify "our comrades to come tomorrow at first thing".

He ends the message by saying that the technique has had an effect because "at my post, many people return (home) without registering". And he swears that if I have to help Frelimo "I will do it as many times as necessary".

In addition to this technique, at other stations in some districts, mobiles were allegedly broken when, in fact, they were fully operational. They were used in the dead of night to register voters. The most obvious case occurred in the district of Ribáuè, where two machines were taken from the town hall offices to register residents from outside the municipal boundaries. The supervisors claimed that the two machines were broken and that the brigade had stopped registering for a week due to alleged machine breakdowns. An identical scenario occurred in the city of Matola, where the machines were reported as broken when, in fact, they were being used during the night, until around 11pm, and on several days. ()