Claims that Mozambique's elections last month were rigged sparked nationwide clashes between protesters and police in which at least 30 people have been killed, and tensions remain high amid calls for a recount.
Mozambique's estimated population is 33-million. Of those, 17-million are registered to vote. Yet just 7.4-million went to the polls on October 9. Analysts blame the high abstention rate on a lack of trust in electoral institutions, which are made up of the two main political parties — Frelimo and Renamo — and selected civil figures.
“There is no trust in the electoral bodies,” Jorge Guambe, a political scientist, told the Sunday Times.
A fortnight after the elections the National Elections Commission (CNE) officially recognised Frelimo candidate Daniel Chapo as the winner of the presidential vote. The results must still be validated by the Constitutional Council. Chapo is expected to succeed Filipe Nyusi and will become Mozambique's fifth president. Frelimo has been in power since independence in 1975.
According to the results, announced by CNE president Carlos Matsinhe, Chapo, won 70% of the votes cast.
Second was Venâncio Mondlane, supported by the non-parliamentary Optimist Party for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos), with 20.32%.
Third was Ossufo Momade, president of Renamo, until now the largest opposition party, with 5.81%.
He was followed by Lutero Simango of the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM, with 3.21%.
Podemos has asked the Constitutional Council to recount the votes.
Mondlane called for a “national demonstration against the murder of the people” during protests over the election results and the killing of two of his advisers.
“We have to do something for this country. Let's demonstrate at the electoral institutions. Let's paralyse everything for a week. It won't be foreigners who free us from Frelimo,” Mondlane told supporters.
In a joint declaration on Friday in Maputo, opposition parties including Podemos, Renamo and MDM rejected the results announced by the CNE, saying they were tainted by irregularities in favour of Frelimo.
They cited issues including ballot stuffing, falsified result sheets and missing documents. The elections were disorganised and the results were not credible, they said.
They called for a forensic audit, demanded criminal accountability for members of the electoral management bodies and pledged to continue protesting until “truth and justice” were restored. A commission had been established to discuss future plans.
Podemos said that according to a parallel count, it won the legislative elections with 138 seats against 91 for Frelimo, and Mondlane won the presidential election with 53% of the vote.
By Friday, the chaos and violence which culminated on Thursday had begun to dissipate. By yesterday the street were calm, with Mondlane — who is in hiding — telling his supporters to wait for new instructions for the next step in the protests.
Tension between Mondlane and government authorities remains high. A criminal complaint has been filed against him for attacks on the police.
Several thousand people took to the streets of Mozambique's capital Maputo after Mondlane's call for protest marches.
At least 30 people have been killed during the crackdown on protesters over the past three weeks. Many others were injured and sprayed with teargas.
Several shops were looted in Maputo. Daily living came to standstill, with many staying home from work. Several arteries in the city were impassable, tyres and rubbish bins were set on fire. In response to the teargas used by authorities, stones and other objects were thrown, with reports of clashes in the city centre and in almost all of Maputo's suburbs.
The weeks of protest began after the October 18 murder of Mondlane's lawyer Elvino Dias and campaign delegate Paulo Guambe, and intensified when Frelimo was declared the winner of the election on October 24.
Amnesty International has called on the Mozambican government to put an end to repression and to respect everyone's right to freedom of expression.
It said on Friday that “the last two weeks in Mozambique have been marked by completely unnecessary bloodshed, as the authorities tried to stop a peaceful protest movement with lethal force”.
Amnesty International also denounced the fact that the government had “repeatedly cut off internet access throughout the country” and had “blocked social networking sites for almost a week”.
Amos Matsinhe, a Mozambican sociologist, told the Sunday Times that Mondlane, in calling for the demonstrations, was “playing into Nyusi's hands”, giving him reasons “to declare a state of emergency and prolong his hold on power and postpone the succession”.
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