Maputo — On Saturday, for the second time in two days, supporters of Mozambique's main opposition party, Renamo, marched through the streets of Maputo, claiming victory in the municipal elections held on Wednesday.

Leading the entirely peaceful march was the Renamo candidate for the post of Mayor of Maputo, Venancio Mondlane, who insisted that Renamo had won, despite the preliminary results issued by the district elections commission which showed a victory for the ruling Frelimo Party.

Cited by the independent television station STV, Mondlane claimed that Renamo "has rescued Maputo'. He alleged that Frelimo's previous victories in the city were the result of electoral fraud, but promised that this time Frelimo would not succeed.

"They should be careful about what they are doing', he menaced. "We have allowed many elections which they won by using fraud. This time the people of Maputo decided to vote, and do you think we should accept this?'

"No!', roared the crowd in response. Mondlane urged his largely young supporters to fight on until Renamo's victory in Maputo is recognized.

In the central city of Quelimane, the Renamo mayor, Manuel de Araujo, also led a protest march against the initial results which proclaimed a Frelimo victory.

Both Mondlane and Araujo claim that they have the results sheets ("editais') from all the polling stations, which show that Renamo won.

Araujo said that he is going on a diplomatic offensive, giving the rest of the world his version of what had happened during the elections. Renamo would not stop marching, he declared, until the restoration of what he called "the material truth'.

With both Renamo and the district commissions claiming that they possess the true polling station results sheets, the logical next step would be to confront them - to put both versions on a website. That should make it easier to detect any tampering, and decide which results sheets are genuine.