Just In: Police disperse another post-election demonstration with tear gas; on Mao Tse Tung Avenue, central Maputo – Mozambique Elections

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Just In: Police disperse another post-election demonstration with tear gas; on Mao Tse Tung Avenue, central Maputo – Mozambique Elections

12:22 CAT | 04 Nov 2024

Photo: Luisa Nhantumbo/Lusa

Police in Mozambique on Monday stopped a demonstration in the centre of Maputo staged by a few dozen people protesting against the results announced for the general elections of 9 October, with officers using tear gas to disperse the crowd.

The march had been called by the Optimist Party for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos), which supports the presidential candidacy of Venâncio Mondlane, and after a few hundred metres, on Mao Tse-Tung Avenue, police officers tried to dissuade the demonstrators, who were to walk to the statue of Eduardo Mondlane, on the avenue of the same name.

With the protesters – without any visible Podemos leader present – still intending to march peacefully, holding small signs protesting against the election results, the police ended up firing several rounds of tear gas to disperse them, at around 10:50 local time..

With residents in the surrounding area throwing stones and other objects at the scene in protest against the police action, the group ended up separating, but shortly afterwards, on Eduardo Mondlane Avenue, some of the people who had gathered there were once again dispersed with new rounds of tear gas.

Venâncio Mondlane called for a general strike and demonstrations for a week in Mozambique, starting on October 31, and marches in Maputo on November 7.

The presidential candidate called this the third stage of the challenge to the results of the general elections held on October 9, following the protests held on October 21, 24 and 25, which led to clashes with the police, resulting in at least 10 deaths, dozens of injuries and 500 arrests, according to the Center for Public Integrity (CIP), a Mozambican non-governmental organization that monitors electoral processes.

The CIP and the CDD – Center for Democracy and Human Rights estimate that in the clashes of the last few days at least nine people died in clashes with the police in the context of the post-election protests.

The National Elections Commission (CNE) announced on October 24 the victory of Daniel Chapo, supported by the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo, the party in power since 1975), in the election for President of the Republic on October 9, with 70.67% of the votes. Venâncio Mondlane, supported by Podemos, an extra-parliamentary party, came in second place, with 20.32%, but stated that he did not recognize these results, which still have to be validated and proclaimed by the Constitutional Council.