The KaMavota District Court accepted Renamo's appeal and ordered a recount of the votes based on the real editias (results sheets), because "a substantial part and with a preponderant influence on the final results was not calculated on the basis of original editais".

In his judgement, the judge states that "it is clear from all the evidence produced that part of the counting" of the results was done using 185 non-original editais" out of a total of 258. This only contravenes the rules according to the judge, who did not order the opening of criminal proceedings against the offenders. KaMavota is one of the 8 urban districts of Maputo

The court refused to declare the elections null and void, and instead ordered a recount on the basis of the 185 original notices, as demanded by Renamo.

In many of the fake editais, part of Renamo's votes were transferred to Frelimo, as evidenced by some of theeditais cited in the judgement and in the following table. In the first polling station (01) Frelimo was 5 votes ahead in the real edital, but in the fake one Frelimo was 205 votes ahead, because exactly 100 votes were moved from Renamo to Frelimo. In three polling stations the Frelimo and Renamo numbers were simply interchanged. And in the last one 102 votes were taken from Renamo but 365 were added to Frelimo.

As can be seen, the 10 fake editas presented by the CDE show that Frelimo wins with a difference of 1416 votes, but in the real editais, Renamo wins in the same 10 polling stations with 810 votes. It is on the basis of this evidence that the court ordered a recount of the votes.

'Ordered from the top' says 1st CNE head Mazula

"What happened in these elections "can only happen because someone higher up ordered it," said Brazão Mazula, the first CNE head, in an interview in O Pais (18 Oct) And he adds that "it's sad that there are official institutions to manage and guide electoral processes and there are unofficial institutions that actually direct electoral processes."