Mozambique Elections: Mondlane rejects “tampered results”, that “do not reflect the will of the people” – Watch

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Mozambique Elections: Mondlane rejects “tampered results”, that “do not reflect the will of the people” – Watch

2:31 CAT | 25 Oct 2024

Screen grab: Venâncio Mondlane / Facebook

Presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane on Thursday rejected “outright” the results of the Mozambican general elections, which attribute victory to Frelimo and its candidate, Daniel Chapo, saying that they “do not reflect the will of the people”.

“We reject these results outright, categorically. They are tremendously and absurdly false, adulterated, and lying results. They are not results that reflect the will of the people,” Mondlane says in a video posted on Facebook.

The Mozambican National Electoral Commission (CNE) yesterday announced the victory of Daniel Chapo (Frelimo) in the election for President of the Republic on October 9, with 70.67% of the votes – a result still to be validated by the Constitutional Council.

According to the results of the general vote count announced by the president of the CNE, Carlos Matsinhe, in Maputo, Daniel Chapo, the candidate supported by the ruling Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo), won with more than 50% of the votes in all constituencies in the country, totalling 4,912,762 votes. Venâncio Mondlane, supported by the Optimist Party for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos, an extra-parliamentary party), came in second place, with 20.32% (1,412,517 votes).

Venâncio Mondlane’s statement was made from “whereabouts unknown”, as he himself said, claiming there is “a plan by the Frelimo death squads” to kill him.

In his ‘live broadcast’ yesterday, Mondlane challenged the CNE and Frelimo to present evidence of Chapo’s victory, and of the party in power since independence, namely, the polling station notices (editais).

Regarding the street demonstrations across the country yesterday, Mondlane criticized the defence and security forces, accusing them of using real bullets to repress the people who contested Frelimo’s victory and called on junior officers to arrest commanders who give them the orders to shoot at the people.

“Do not accept orders from your commanders. These are illegal and criminal instructions,” he stressed, evoking what happened in Portugal during the revolution of April 25, 1974, when junior officers overthrew the Portuguese colonial regime.

Stating that demonstrations are a right provided for in the Mozambican Constitution, Mondlane called for them to continue, while asking for them to be peaceful, and guaranteeing that on Friday they would be larger still.

“Tomorrow (Friday) we will intensify [them] more and more. The neighbourhoods that did not come out today, they will all come out. We will take to the streets, in all districts, in all provincial capitals,” Mondlane pledged, stating that, next week, the third of four phases of protests he promised could begin before the results are announced by the Constitutional Council.

Mondlane said that Frelimo “continues to use force to stay in power. It uses the defence and security forces, which fire real bullets and are killing Mozambicans”.

The candidate concluded by citing Afonso Dhlakama, the historic leader of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), the main resistance movement to the Frelimo regime, which led a civil war against the regime for 16 years.

“The revolution has already arrived. The time has come,” he said.

The announcement of the results made yesterday by the CNE came on the first of two days of general strike and demonstrations throughout the country called by Mondlane against this year’s electoral process, which has been marked by clashes between protesters and the police on the main avenues of the Mozambican capital.

Source: Lusa