Day 2 of Mozambique election campaign sees 7 MDM members arrested in Beira and Chiúre

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Day 2 of Mozambique election campaign sees 7 MDM members arrested in Beira and Chiúre

4:45 CAT | 28 Sep 2023

File photo: DW

The Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), the second-largest opposition party in the Mozambican parliament, announced in Beira today the arrest of seven party members by national police, on suspicion of having violated electoral law.

“We have to announce the arrest of party members in the districts of Chiure, in Cabo Delgado, and of Beira, in Sofala,” party president Lutero Simango said.

Speaking to journalists in Beira, Simango said that two senior members of his party, the MDM political delegates for the province of Sofala and for the city of Beira, were being detained in that same city, for reasons still unclear. Five other MDM members, Simango added, were being held in Chiure, allegedly “for having posted campaign material hours before the start of the electoral campaign”.

“We condemn the way the police are acting. We are facing not a republican police but a partisan one, which acts under the command of the party in power, Frelimo. We will not back down, and they will not stop us,” Simango said, adding that the arrest of his party’s senior staff was aimed at “weakening and destabilising the MDM”.

“We appeal to the common sense of those responsible, to intervene promptly in this situation. We appeal to the President of the Republic, Filipe Nyusi, and the international community to intervene as soon as possible in these cases, because they are staining our democracy,” he said.

Contacted by Lusa, the police, through its Sofala provincial spokesperson, Dercio Chacate, sent clarifications about the arrest of MDM members on Thursday, after consulting the PRM command in Beira.

At the start of the electoral campaign, which runs until October 8, the presidents of the two largest opposition parties in Mozambique, Renamo and the MDM, called on the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo, the party in power) to “abstain from artifices” that “endanger peace and promote national discontent”, and on the police not to “play party politics” in the electoral campaign.

More than 11,500 candidates from 11 political parties, three party coalitions and eight groups of citizens began their campaigns for the October 11th Mozambican local councils on Tuesday, amidst calls for a peaceful process.

Mozambique is currently starting a new electoral cycle, which, in addition to local elections next month, includes general elections on October 9, 2024, with voting for the new President of the Republic, a position for which the current head of state, Filipe Nyusi, cannot constitutionally run again.

More than 8.7 million Mozambican voters are registered to vote in the sixth local elections, below the initial projection of 9.8 million voters, according to official (CNE) data.

Source: Lusa