Mozambique Elections: Local election result protests should not threaten security – minister

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Mozambique Elections: Local election result protests should not threaten security – minister

8:49 CAT | 20 Nov 2023

Opening of the conference 'Mozambique at the United Nations Security Council: Promoting International Peace and Security" in Maputo. Personal Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres for Mozambique ,Mirko Manzoni, speaks. [Image: Nações Unidas Moçambique / Facebook]

Mozambique’s defence minister, Cristóvão Chume, on Friday warned that national security should not be threatened by challenges to the results of the October 11 local elections, warning that there are still “armed minds” in the country.

“The spaces for discussion and negotiation [about the results of the 11 October local elections] must not be replaced by threats to the security of people, to national security,” said Chume.

The defence minister was speaking at the conference” Mozambique at the United Nations Security Council: Promoting International Peace and Security”, held on Friday in Maputo, the Mozambican capital.

“The images we see show how deeply we are armed in our minds,” emphasised Cristóvão Chume, defending the need for national cohesion.

The country, he continued, must commit itself to deepening democracy and the rule of law.

The Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) Centre for Public Integrity said on Friday that officers from the Mozambique police force (PRM) shot eight demonstrators from the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo, the main opposition party) in Angoche, Nampula province, one of whom was in a serious condition.

“Five people are in hospital, one of whom is in a serious condition and had to be transferred to Nampula Central Hospital,” says a statement from the NGO, which observed the sixth local elections on 11 October and is monitoring the next electoral process across the country.

On Thursday, Renamo reported that at least six people were injured in the town of Angoche, Nampula province, allegedly after the PRM intervened during a protest against the municipal election results.

According to a Renamo source, the wounded were shot by PRM officers during a demonstration in which a coffin with the symbols of the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo, in power) was displayed.

“The people here didn’t do anything, it was simply because of the coffin, everyone has their own way of demonstrating, we don’t know where the crime is and what legal type of crime the people have committed,” described Renamo.

Lusa tried to contact the PRM in Nampula, but has so far been unsuccessful.

The Constitutional Council, the last judicial instance for electoral appeals, gave the National Electoral Commission (CNE) a deadline of 24 hours, which expired on Thursday – it has since asked for an extension – to deliver election tabulation notices in several municipalities, including Angoche, following Renamo’s appeal against the election results.

The streets of some Mozambican cities, including Maputo, have been taken over by consecutive opposition demonstrations dubbed “repudiation” of the “mega-fraud” in the process involving the municipal elections on 11 October and the results announced by the CNE, which awarded victory to Frelimo in 64 of the country’s 65 municipalities, and which have been strongly criticised by opposition parties, civil society and non-governmental organisations.

Renamo, which in the previous 53 local councils (12 new local councils were created this year) was leading in eight, was left without any councils, despite claiming victory in the country’s largest cities, on the basis of the original minutes and notices of polling stations, having appealed to the Constitutional Council, the last instance of appeal in the electoral process.

Source: Lusa