Maputo — The South African government is providing three helicopters to assist in the distribution of election material to remote areas for next week's Mozambican general and provincial elections.

Lucas Jose, head of the press office of the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE), the electoral branch of the Mozambican civil service, told AIM that the three aircraft will arrive in Maputo by Friday.

This means that STAE will have seven helicopters available - the other four, which are already in the country, have been hired on commercial terms by the National Elections Commission (CNE).

The CNE initially wanted to hire six helicopters and launched an international tender in July. There were no bidders because the CNE was not offering enough money.

When a second tender was held, the amount of money available from the government was only sufficient to pay for four helicopters.

Helicopters are regarded as the only feasible means of reaching some of the more remote parts of the country, where moving election materials by road is not a practicable proposition.