Mozambique: Three injured in Maganja da Costa at election demonstration

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Mozambique: Three injured in Maganja da Costa at election demonstration

7:27 CAT | 11 Dec 2023

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Conselho Executivo da Zamebezia]

At least three supporters of the main opposition party in Mozambique were injured, and 13 others were arrested in skirmishes with the Mozambican police during a march by that political force in Zambezia, an official source announced.

“Of the 13 detainees, a trace was made and only six people were detained. And of the injured, we counted three, two of whom had minor injuries and have been discharged,” said the secretary of state in Zambezia province, Cristina Mafumo, quoted by the local media.

The episode took place in the municipality of Maganja da Costa, where around 200 supporters of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), the main opposition force, were once again marching to contest the results of the local elections on 11 October.

According to the secretary of state of Zambézia province, the Renamo sympathisers clashed with the authorities.

“They were disobedient. The police were stoned and had to act. This really does not dignify our state and we repudiate these attitudes,” added Cristina Mafumo.

On Wednesday, Renamo accused the police of carrying out hundreds of arbitrary arrests and firing tear gas at party members in Nampula province.

At a press conference in Maputo, the party’s spokesman said that the episodes occurred on Wednesday, when a police unit allegedly invaded the party’s premises in the city of Nampula with the aim of rescuing a member of the corporation who was identified by Renamo, in plain clothes, at one of the party’s marches in that municipality.

“Once he had been neutralised and without clarifying the reasons for his infiltration, other agents stormed the premises of the provincial political delegation with tear gas and shots at Renamo members, in an affront to the principle of proportionality and the basic rules of a police force that claims to be republican and non-partisan,” said José Manteigas, accusing the authorities of having arrested “more than two hundred party sympathisers”.

“Police agents once again demonstrated their cruel and despotic nature by firing tear gas at defenceless citizens who were marching peacefully in that town, with the aim of preventing the exercise of the right to demonstrate,” added José Manteigas, who blamed the government and the President of the Republic, Filipe Nyusi, for the alleged crimes committed by the police.

The sixth local elections in Mozambique continue to be the target of fierce criticism from different opposition parties and civil society, who denounce “mega-fraud” in the ballot, in particular the falsification of public notices, with some district court decisions recognising irregularities in the process.

The main opposition party has organised marches to contest the results of the 11 October elections, gathering thousands of people in different parts of the country to demand the “restoration of electoral truth” and has already filed several criminal cases, namely against the judges of the Constitutional Council and agents of the electoral process.

On 24 November, the Mozambican Constitutional Council proclaimed the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) as the winner of the 11 October local elections in 56 municipalities, against the previous 64 announced by the National Electoral Commission (CNE), with Renamo winning four, and ordered repeat elections in another four.

According to the CNE, the repeat elections, scheduled for Sunday, will cost 41 million meticais (€595,000) and will take place in 75 polling stations, including 18 in Nacala-Porto (Nampula province), three in Milange and 13 in Gurúè (Zambézia) and in all 41 polling stations in Marromeu (Sofala).

Source: Lusa