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FILE - Angoche, November 16 2023. [Image: Constantino FernandoANGOCHEANOS (aparapatho)/Facebook]
One member of the main Mozambican opposition party has died and two are hospitalised following clashes in a demonstration against the results of the local elections, the Mozambican Interior Minister announced on Friday.
“Unfortunately, three members of Renamo [Resistência Nacional Moçambicana] were shot, one of whom lost his life, and two are still in hospital,” said Pascoal Ronda, speaking to the state channel Televisão de Moçambique (TVM).
Ronda said that five people were detained and that the Public Prosecutor’s Office (PGR) is investigating the circumstances of the aforementioned incidents in Angoche municipality, Nampula province, northern Mozambique, on Thursday (November 16).
The Interior Minister declared that the police fired live ammunition into the air to prevent Renamo members attacking a police station in Angoche with machetes, sticks and stones.
Pascoal Ronda said that the agents also used rubber bullets to prevent protesters from depositing a ballot box covered with a flag of the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), the ruling party at the district administration headquarters.
“The Renamo district delegate mobilised supporters to carry or transport with them a coffin covered by the Frelimo flag with the intention of depositing it with the administration, as a form of repudiation of the election results,” he added.
The police, he continued, advised against carrying out this action, but the protesters preferred to use violence, throwing stones and sticks at the authorities.
“The Police of the Republic of Mozambique intervened in a civilised manner to call for a more reasonable attitude, but they reacted in an incorrect way,” the Minister of the Interior stressed.
On Friday, Mozambican police accused Renamo supporters of trying to invade the district government building in Angoche during the demonstration against the electoral results, justifying the police charge to restore order which left several injured.
“Members and supporters of the Renamo party disobeyed the legal precepts that guide the holding of any type of demonstration, starting with acts of violence, carrying blunt objects (…) They threw stones at the police and tried to invade the local government building,” said corporation spokesperson Zacarias Nacute.
Also on Thursday, the non-governmental organisation Centro de Integridade Pública (CIP), which monitors electoral processes, said that the Police of the Republic of Mozambique shot eight protesters during the skirmishes.
READ: CIP Mozambique Elections: Police shoot eight Renamo demonstrators in Angoche
Mozambique Elections: Police says only ‘shot at’ four in Angoche – Ikweli
The streets of some Mozambican cities, including Maputo, have been taken over by consecutive demonstrations by the opposition against what they consider to have been a “mega fraud” in the process of the municipal elections on October 11th and the results announced by the National Elections Commission (CNE), which attributed victory to Frelimo in 64 of the country’s 65 municipalities.
The announced results have been heavily criticised by opposition parties, civil society and non-governmental organisations.
Renamo, which in the previous 53 municipalities (12 new municipalities were created this year) led in eight, was left without any municipality, despite claiming victory in the country’s largest cities, based on the minutes and original notices of the polling stations, having appealed to the Constitutional Council, the last instance of appeal in the electoral process.
Some district courts even recognized irregularities in the electoral process and ordered the repetition of several electoral acts, while street demonstrations contesting the announced results are regularly held.
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