Mozambique: Police create “environment of terror” preventing “free, fair and transparent elections”- Renamo

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Mozambique: Police create “environment of terror” preventing “free, fair and transparent elections”- Renamo

8:32 CAT | 22 Apr 2022

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Lusa]

Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), the main opposition party, on Thursday called on the police not to create “an environment of terror” in the local elections on 11 October 2023, accusing the corporation of preventing “free, fair and transparent elections”.

“We do not want an environment of terror created by the police in the next elections,” said José Manteigas, Renamo spokesman and member of parliament.

Manteigas was speaking during the session of questions from the parliamentary benches to the government.

“The peace that we are creating should not be jeopardised by appetites, to, at all costs, [Frelimo] perpetuate itself in power,” he added.

The spokesman for the main opposition party accused police forces of having a “bloodthirsty” attitude and demonstrating “muscle” against members of opposition parties, aimed at generating a climate conducive to electoral fraud in favour of the ruling Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo).

The illegal actions of law enforcement officers, he continued, are not limited to election periods, because it is part of their standard of conduct.

“One of the presuppositions of the rule of law is freedom of expression and demonstration, which clearly and unquestionably has been taken away from Mozambicans, especially since 2015, which represents the dictatorship implanted by the [Frelimo] regime since 1975,” José Manteigas said.

The spokesman also accused the police of killing civilians in the exercise of their rights, citing as an example the death in March of two protesters in the district of Molumbo, in Zambezia province, central Mozambique.

The victims lost their lives during clashes between the police and local people following a decision by the district authorities to prevent the use of the Malawian currency (kwacha) in the area bordering Malawi.

On Wednesday, Mozambique’s Interior Minister, Arsénia Massingue, said in parliament that the authorities would hold accountable the police officers who illegally prevented the right to demonstrate, noting that the government did not tolerate the violation of fundamental rights.

“The government of Mozambique, in particular the ministry of the interior, does not condone acts of its officers that violate the constitution of the Republic and call into question the rights and freedoms of citizens,” Massingue said.

Source: Lusa