Mozambique: Announcement of election results leads to violence on the streets of Maputo – Lusa

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Mozambique: Announcement of election results leads to violence on the streets of Maputo – Lusa

10:30 CAT | 24 Oct 2024

Photo: Lusa

While the CNE announced the Mozambican election results, with Frelimo electing Daniel Chapo President of the Republic and strengthening its absolute parliamentary majority, pro-Venâncio Mondlane protesters took to the streets of Maputo, burning tires and blocking avenues.

Over the course of four hours, starting at 2:30 p.m., the results announced in Maputo gave victory to the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo, the ruling party) in the presidential, legislative and provincial elections, at the same time that the police began firing tear gas to disperse the protesters, called by presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, who were burning tires and throwing stones on Avenida Joaquim Chissano.

Canine unit teams, armoured vehicles from the Rapid Intervention Unit (UIR) and dozens of heavily armed officers, with the support of a helicopter, tried to control the protesters, amidst an intense smell of tear gas that invaded the surrounding neighbourhoods, making the air unbreathable, and the circulation of fire engines to extinguish the fires.

“The announcements are all wrong. We will not accept it”, said one of the protesters, wearing a scarf over his face, next to the barricades sealed off by the police.

“70% is not possible”, claimed another, in an allusion to the election results, demanding “justice”.

In what was the first of two days of strike and demonstration called by Venâncio Mondlane, who has already said that he does not recognise the results of the intermediate electoral count, generally confirmed today by the announcement of the general count by the National Elections Commission (CNE), several outbreaks quickly appeared throughout the capital, aggravated by the darkness that was beginning to fall in the capital.

“The country is on fire,” said another protester on Julius Nyerere Avenue, another main avenue partially cut off with tires and trash containers scattered around, where it was only possible to get there amid shouts of “journalists.”

“Venâncio has already said that tomorrow will be the same thing, we are tired. We are tired,” said one protester there.

On Acordos de Lusaka Avenue, another main artery in the city of Maputo, the scene was identical and at the entrance the police were already blocking access, with smoke and burning tires in the background, to the fear of many who were passing by on foot.

“The situation is not good here (…) I had to go back because I saw the situation there, there are a lot of people, it’s not good over there on [avenue] Joaquim Chissano,” said one of those people, apprehensively.

“I’m going to try to get home. I’ll get home, I have faith in that,” she added.

Right there, another young man who was passing by jumped over the fence of a car park to protect himself, when the police used tear gas to control the protesters on the same avenue, which was studded with rocks, at around 5:00 pm local time.

“We are suffering. It [the gas] got into our noses, our mouths, we are in a very bad state”, he explained, from the other side of the fences, where he found some protection.

“There were people selling, everyone ran away”, he also reported.

At the beginning of the night, gunshots could still be heard in some neighbourhoods of the city and the National 4 (N4) road, which connects Maputo to Ressano Garcia, on the border with South Africa, was also blocked by burning tyres, with a strong police presence in the area.

On Avenida Joaquim Chissano, in the center of the capital where the murder of Elvino Dias, Venâncio Mondlane’s lawyer, and Paulo Guambe, head of Podemos, the party that supports this candidate, took place on Friday night, stones could be seen on the ground, thrown by protesters at the police.

The CNE released today the results of the general count of the elections of October 9th – presidential, legislative and for the provincial assemblies -, announcing the victory of Frelimo, with 11 more deputies than it already had in parliament, and of its presidential candidate, Daniel Chapo, with 70.67% of the votes, results that still need to be validated by the Constitutional Council.

Venâncio Mondlane, supported by the Optimist Party for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos, which until now was an extra-parliamentary party), and who came in second place with 20.32% of the votes, had called for two days of general strikes and demonstrations across the country today and Friday in protest against the way the electoral process was conducted.

On Monday, there had already been clashes between protesters and the police, who responded with gunfire and tear gas, and which left at least 16 people injured, including journalists, according to a hospital source.

Source: Lusa