Maputo — Before a single vote has been cast in next week's general and provincial elections, Mozambique's main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, in the central province of Sofala, has accused the ruling Frelimo Party of massive fraud.

According to a report in Tuesday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias", the Renamo political delegate in Beira, Manuel Bissopo, claimed that Frelimo has introduced "enormous numbers of ballot boxes" already filled with votes.

Bissopo did not produce any of these mysterious extra ballot boxes, or offer any other evidence. The public are expected to believe that fraud is being prepared, solely because Renamo says so.

"Frelimo already feels defeated", declared Bissopo. "Our information system knows everything that is going on in Frelimo because Beira belongs to Renamo. My brothers, here in Beira, there are already ballot boxes with votes, ready to be switched, and we have to be smart".

Bissopo has some direct experience of fraud. In 2008 he was a fraudulent candidate in the local elections. Bissopo stood for mayor of the town of Dondo, even though he did not meet the legal requirement that all candidates must have lived in the municipality for at least six months.

Bissopo did not live in Dondo, but in Beira, and at the time he was even a member of the Beira City Council.

As for Beira "belonging to Renamo", that is not what the municipal election results suggest. In November 2008, Davis Simango (now the leader of the Mozambique Democratic Movement, MDM, but then running as an independent) secured re-election as mayor with a crushing 62 per cent of the vote. The Frelimo candidate, Lourenco Bulha, came second with 33 per cent, while Renamo candidate Manuel Pereira trailed with a miserable 2.7 per cent.

Switching ballot boxes in next week's elections would be very difficult given the security features in Mozambican electoral procedures. Firstly, the ballot boxes are transparent, and second, before polling stations open, the staff must display the ballot boxes to any political party monitors, observers and journalists present, to show that they are empty.

The ballot boxes are then sealed with numbered seals. Anybody seeking to smuggle in a fake ballot box would have to guess the numbers of the seals.

All political parties contesting the elections, Renamo included, have the right to two monitors (one full and one reserve) per polling station. So in principle the ballot boxes are always within sight of the party monitors.

Switching ballot boxes after the voting has finished is also virtually impossible, because the court takes place at the polling stations, immediately after the close of the polls, and the results are promptly posted for public knowledge on the pulling station doors or walls.