Mozambique Elections: Podemos files criminal complaint against police spokesperson

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Mozambique Elections: Podemos files criminal complaint against police spokesperson

1:34 CAT | 13 Dec 2024

File photo: Podemos/Facebook

The Optimistic People for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos), which supports Venâncio Mondlane’s presidential candidacy, on Thursday filed a criminal complaint against the spokesperson for the Mozambican police for accusations made against the party.

Podemos accuses Orlando Modumane, spokesperson for the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM), of making “several accusatory statements” against the party, claiming that it had ordered the invasion of police subunits and penitentiaries and the theft of weapons, with the aim of carrying out a coup d’état.

“These statements tarnish the good name of the Podemos party. (…) These words have left us concerned because we see them as incitement to hatred, demonizing the Podemos party’s fight to restore electoral truth,” said Podemos secretary general Sebastião Mussanhane, after submitting the criminal complaint to the Maputo city prosecutor’s office.

Mussanhane asked the PGR to “duly follow up” on the criminal complaint so that the party’s good name could be restored, considering that the police action at this time is “political and not security-related.”

“We saw a PRM that stripped away its principles, its legal system and dressed itself in politics,” said the Podemos’s secretary general, also accusing the police of persecuting some members of the Podemos party.

Since October 21, Mozambique has been experiencing successive strikes and demonstrations to contest the results of the October 9 general elections, called by presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, which have already caused at least 110 deaths and more than 300 injuries as a result of violent clashes between the police and protesters, according to an updated report by the Plataforma Eleitoral Decide non-governmental organization.

The results of the October 9 elections announced by the National Electoral Commission (CNE) gave victory, with 70.67% of the votes, to Daniel Chapo, supported by the ruling Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), and placed Venâncio Mondlane in second place, with 20.32%, but he does not recognize the results, which still have to be validated and proclaimed by the Constitutional Council.

In one of his last live broadcasts on the social network Facebook, Mondlane promised to be in Maputo to take office as President of Mozambique on January 15, the date scheduled for the inauguration of the new head of state.

Source: Lusa