Mozambique Elections: Podemos files complaint against activist who reported alleged bribery – Watch

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique Elections: Podemos files complaint against activist who reported alleged bribery – Watch

3:29 CAT | 17 Jan 2025

Screen grab: TV Sucesso

The Podemos party, which supported Venâncio Mondlane’s presidential candidacy, yesterday filed a criminal complaint against Adriano Nuvunga for alleged defamation, days after the Mozambican activist reported the alleged bribery of the party president.

“It is a criminal complaint for defamation, and if Professor Adriano Nuvunga has proof of his statements, he should come here and prove it. We believe in the integrity of our president,” the spokesperson for the Optimistic People for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos) told Lusa after submitting the complaint to the Maputo City Prosecutor’s Office.

The Mozambican non-governmental organization Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (CDD) filed the bribery complaint Tuesday.

“This is information from people who claim to be close to this operation. We came here to report it to the competent institution, which will have to audit its public spending and assets from a certain point onwards,” CDD director Adriano Nuvunga told the media after submitting documents at the Central Office for Combating Corruption (GCCC) in Maputo.

At issue is the disagreement between presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, who is leading the biggest challenge to the election results ever in Mozambique, and the party that supported him, Podemos, which until last year was an extra-parliamentary political party and is now the main opposition force in the country.

Registered in May, 2019, and composed of dissidents from the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), Podemos saw its popularity increase after the announcement, on August 21, of its support for Mondlane’s candidacy in the presidential elections after Mondlane had his coalition (CAD) rejected by the Constitutional Council for “irregularities”.

A week ago, Podemos president Albino Forquilha admitted that there were differences in the “struggle strategy” between the party and Mondlane, and advocated an end to the demonstrations, although he promised to comply with the agreement established.

Although the agreement is still in force, relations between the parties became tense when the Podemos decided to take office in parliament without the knowledge of Mondlane, who claims that the results were fraudulent and, therefore, the inauguration, which was boycotted by two other opposition parties (Renamo and the MDM), was premature.

According to the CDD complaint, Albino Forquilha allegedly received 219 million meticais (€3.3 million) to “sell electoral justice”. “We want Professor Nuvunga to provide evidence for his claims,” the Podemos spokesperson said.

Podemos is the result of a split of former Frelimo members, who called for more “economic inclusion” and left the ruling party, claiming at the time “disenchantment” and different ambitions.

The results announced by the Constitutional Council (CC) on 23 December indicate Podemos as the largest opposition party in Mozambique in the next parliament, with 43 seats, taking away a status that had been held by the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) since the first multi-party elections in 1994.

Of the 250 seats that make up the Assembly of the Republic, Renamo went from 60 deputies, which it obtained in the 2019 legislative elections, to 28 parliamentarians.

Frelimo, in power since independence, maintained a parliamentary majority, with 171 deputies.

In the presidential elections, the CC, the final instance of appeal in electoral disputes, proclaimed Daniel Chapo, a candidate supported by Frelimo, as the winner, with 65.17% of the votes, having been sworn in on Wednesday in Maputo.

Chapo’s election as Filipe Nyusi’s successor is, however, being contested on the streets and the announcement by the CC has increased the chaos that the country has been experiencing since October, with pro-Mondlane protesters – a candidate who, according to the Constitutional Council, obtained only 24% of the votes but claims victory – in protests demanding the “reestablishment of the electoral truth”, with barricades, looting and clashes with the police.

Clashes between the police and protesters have already caused more than 300 deaths and more than 600 gunshot wounds, according to civil society organizations following the process.

READ: Mozambique Elections: NGO denounces alleged bribe paid to Podemos party leader – Watch

Source: Lusa