Mozambique: Five more deaths, 22 shot on day one of new election protests – NGO

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Mozambique: Five more deaths, 22 shot on day one of new election protests – NGO

8:55 CAT | 04 Dec 2024

Maputo, December 4, 2024. [Photo: Luisa Nhantumbo/Lusa]

At least five people died and another 22 were shot on Wednesday in Mozambique, on the first day of a new week of demonstrations and stoppages to contest the election results, indicated the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Plataforma Eleitoral Decide.

According to the report released by the Mozambican electoral monitoring platform, four of the fatalities were recorded in the northern province of Nampula and one in Maputo, in the south of the country, with at least seven arrests also recorded.

Of those wounded by gunfire, seven were in Cabo Delgado and 14 in Nampula, as well as one in Maputo.

These cases are in addition to another 76 deaths and 240 shootings in 41 days of demonstrations to contest the election results, from 21 October to 1 December, according to the previous report by the electoral monitoring platform, which also estimated ‘more than 3,000 arrests’.

Data from the “4×4” phase of the demonstrations in Mozambique.#MozambiqueElections #MozambiqueProtests #DecideEleicoes pic.twitter.com/ydw8GNBPh6

— Plataforma_decide (@PDecide23) December 4, 2024

Presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane called for a new week-long phase of electoral contestation, starting today, in ‘all neighbourhoods’ in Mozambique, with a halt to car traffic from 8am to 4pm.

“All the neighbourhoods are in strong activity,” said Venâncio Mondlane, who does not recognise the results announced from the general elections on 9 October, in a statement on his official Facebook account, calling for a new period of protest from 4 to 11 December.

“We are going to gather in the neighbourhoods and on the main avenues that cross our neighbourhoods – we don’t need to travel far – and put up our posters,” said Venâncio Mondlane.

As was the case from 27 to 29 November, the presidential candidate is calling for vehicles to stop moving from 8am to 3.30pm local time (two hours less in Lisbon), followed by 30 minutes to sing the anthems of Mozambique and Africa in the streets, which took place today in several central streets, particularly in Maputo.

“We’re going to demonstrate uninterruptedly, without rest. It’s going to be seven full days (…). All vehicles, everything that moves, will be at a standstill,” he insisted, asking motorists to stick protest posters on vehicles travelling until 8am and after 4pm.

The announcement by Mozambique’s National Electoral Commission (CNE) on 24 October of the results of the 9 October elections, in which it awarded victory to Daniel Chapo, supported by the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo, the party in power since 1975) in the election for country’s president, with 70.67% of the vote, triggered popular protests, called by presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane and which have degenerated into violent clashes with the police.

According to the CNE, Mondlane came second with 20.32%, but the latter does not recognise the results, which still have to be validated and proclaimed by the Constitutional Council.

Source: Lusa