Mozambique Elections: Four Mondlane supporters detained in clashes with police in Nampula

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Mozambique Elections: Four Mondlane supporters detained in clashes with police in Nampula

7:45 CAT | 16 Oct 2024

Screen grab: Livenews48

At least four people were arrested after clashes between police and supporters of presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane this Wednesday morning in Nampula, northern Mozambique, the police announced, also confirming injuries among the officers.

The riot took place shortly after Venâncio Mondlane’s arrival in the province for a private visit, which ended up drawing a crowd of people to each of the candidate’s stops in different parts of the city. The situation disrupted the normal movement of people and goods, forcing the police to define an itinerary, which Mondlane agreed to, according to Gilberto Inguane, director of public order and security for the Republic of Mozambique Police (PRM) in Nampula.

“At first he agreed, but when he went ahead with the march, I want to believe that he got emotional seeing the avalanche of people following him, he decided that he should take a route contrary to the one indicated,” which led to the military academy, a route contested by the police, which sparked a popular revolt, he said.

“The public began to confront the police with every possible means (…) some resorted to throwing stones. The police were forced to use dispersal methods and from that moment on the [candidate] followed the route we indicated, but he drew the masses to the Matadouro neighbourhood and there he again incited violence against the police, stones were thrown at the police, there were reports of tyres being burnt and the police had to intervene in order to control the situation,” explained Inguane.

Without mentioning numbers, the director of public order and security for the PRM said that some officers were injured during the clashes and four people were arrested, with another person allegedly seriously injured, according to the local media, a situation that the police have promised to investigate.

“It’s a situation that we need to investigate on the ground, I’m going to go to the hospital myself to find out what happened,” said Inguane.

Há pelo menos um ferido na cidade de #Nampula, no contexto de uma alegada recepção popular do Venancio Mondlane. Relatos apontam que a polícia disparou gás lacrimogéneo, balas de borracha e reais. Ontem VM convocou para segunda-feira (21) marcha nacional contra fraude eleitoral pic.twitter.com/bXwBB12sUI

— Alexandre Nhampossa (@AllexandreMZ) October 16, 2024

acompanhamento ao candidato presidencial Venâncio Mondlane, em que a Polícia terá inviabilizado causado um ferido.
Em actualização!

— Plataforma_decide (@PDecide23) October 16, 2024

The police appealed to the candidate not to resort to violence to claim the election results, which preliminarily give victory to fellow presidential candidate Daniel Chapo, supported by the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo, in power).

Gilberto Inguane called on Venâncio Mondlane to turn to the appropriate bodies to complain and not to use the public, saying that at the moment the situation is “calm and under control” in Nampula province, despite allegations that the candidate has directed the people to make homemade bombs.

“We have some colleagues who have been injured and this attack came about because candidate Venâncio came to Nampula to provoke them, when he was outside Nampula we didn’t have such behaviour. So we continue to appeal to the candidate not to go around the country inciting violence, don’t do that, stop the videos, let him turn to the appropriate authorities, if he realises that the national ones aren’t enough, he can turn to the international ones, Mozambique is not an island, it’s a regulated country,” concluded Inguane.

Venâncio Mondlane said this Monday that the intermediate results of the general elections released in recent days by the Mozambican electoral bodies represent a “falsehood” and “fraud”, reaffirming that he was the “unequivocal winner” of the vote on 9 October.

Venâncio Mondlane has the support of the extra-parliamentary Podemos party, after having left Renamo, the largest opposition party, in May, and assures that he is carrying out a parallel count of the votes in these elections, based on the minutes and notices collected from polling stations across the country.

The publication of the results of the presidential election by the National Electoral Commission, if there is no second round, takes up to 15 days (counted after the polls close), before they are validated by the Constitutional Council, which has no deadlines for proclaiming the official results after analysing any appeals.

Source: Lusa