Mozambique Elections: MDM denounces post-election persecution by police – Watch

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Mozambique Elections: MDM denounces post-election persecution by police – Watch

10:09 CAT | 17 Oct 2023

Screen grab: MDM - Gabinete de Informação

The leader of the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), Lutero Simango, has accused the police of persecuting members of the party, the second largest in the opposition, in local councils post-electoral processes. The MDM won the election in Beira.

“The political environment here is not good – our members are being persecuted and arrested,” Simango said in Beira on Saturday night shortly after the MDM party was declared the winner of the municipal elections in the capital of Sofala province.

According to Simango, at least 13 MDM members, including the political delegate in Dondo municipality in the same province, were “unjustly” arrested.

“We have members who are not sleeping in their homes because there is systematic persecution,” Simango said.

“You are arrested for just wearing an MDM t-shirt,” he further claimed, blaming the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM).

The MDM leader expressed concern about the situation after the October 11 municipal elections, citing alleged fraud in the vote count in the city of Dondo, with 24,000 more votes in favour of the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), and claiming victory based on parallel counting from the notices of each polling station.

“The most serious thing is that our Dondo district headquarters was invaded by the PRM without any judicial warrant. They invaded our headquarters, took a lot of things and this worries us. We are doing due diligence to find out the real motivations for this police action,” he said.

On Friday, Dondo was the scene of a demonstration that paralyzed traffic for a few hours and closed businesses, with demonstrators burning tires in protest against the electoral results announced by official bodies, which led the police to take action.

The PRM also entered the MDM delegation in the municipality, breaking down the doors and using tear gas before detaining 13 members, according to the party.

Contacted by Lusa, PRM provincial spokesperson Dércio Chacate said clarification of the arrests would be made at a later time.

The Mozambique Bar Association expressed on Saturday “deep concern” at the “high level of violence” following Wednesday’s local election, which “reveals discredit in the institutions that manage the electoral process”.

“The levels of violence, in addition to possibly discrediting any electoral result, can also generate suspicion regarding the integrity of the electoral act itself as a whole and the institutions that administer it,” a statement from the Bar Association signed by chairman Carlos Martins says.

District and provincial election commissions have in the past few days released the results of the intermediate vote count in at least 50 municipalities, with Frelimo, in power in the country, winning in 49, and the MDM holding on to Beira, Sofala province.

The result is strongly contested by opposition parties and civil society observers.

Frelimo was announced the winner in Maputo, the capital, and in Matola, the most populous city in the country, but also in Nampula, the ‘capital of the north’, and in Quelimane, capital of Zambézia, both until now held by Renamo, the largest opposition party.

In the 2018 municipal elections, Frelimo won in 44 of the 53 municipalities and the opposition in only nine – Renamo in eight, and the MDM in just Beira. Twelve new municipalities were created for the purpose of these elections.

Source: Lusa / MDM - Gabinete de Informação