High turnout in many rural zones: but few registering in the south | CIP Mozambique Elections
For illustration purposes only. [Screen grab: CIP]
There is a clear rupture between the Renamo leadership in Maputo and its activists in Nacala-Porto. Renamo in Nacala-Porto has already decided that there will be no elections on 10 December and is suggesting neighbours of the two schools where there will be a repeat vote to leave on Sunday to avoid expected violence.
This goes against central policy. Renamo issued a guideline setting out what its members should do on the day of the re-run elections. The guideline was sent to the party’s district delegates in Marromeu, Milange, Guruè and Nacala-Porto, but in the latter municipality the guideline was rejected.
Renamo’s grassroots demands that the election be repeated in all polling stations at municipal level and argue that it makes no sense for Ossufo Momade to repeatedly claim that the elections were fraudulent and now say that Renamo is going to participate in a repeat of the Nacala election in just a few polling stations.
Because of this disagreement, Renamo’s district delegate in Nacala-Porto and list leader (candidate for mayor), Raul Novinte, are in Maputo to negotiate “internal peace”. Ossufo Momade is accused of having negotiated a deal with Frelimo.
If the election is to be repeated in just a few polling stations, the Renamo militants in Nacala-Porto demand that Momade appear publicly to repudiate his previous public pronouncement, and say he now recognises that there was no fraud and that Frelimo’s victory was fair. And, they add, he must also order Renamo members and sympathisers to stop marching and must “evoke reason for his new order” and change of discourse.
“We’ve been marching since the results were announced, because we don’t recognise the results and he [Ossufo Momade] ordered demonstrations against the fraud in all the municipalities. Now he can’t come out and say that we should go for a rerun of the elections at some polling stations in a fraudulent election,” said one of our sources.
In a demonstration on Tuesday, outside the Murrupelane EPC (primary school), where voting will take place, Renamo activists asked those living near the school to leave their homes because there will be a lot of violence.
This is the full text of the speech, translated from a video (below): “There’s information that the police are going to act that day…. Let’s all get out of here. Our patience has run out, this is going to turn into Maringue [a reference to Renamo’s central base in Sofala, which was under siege].We didn’t want to show our heart, we were silent, but we’re going to show it on 10 December. Now we say this, ladies and gentlemen, those of you who are close to that area [the schools where the elections will be repeated] we tell you to move, because on the 10th it won’t work. Tear gas has already been prepared in large quantities to be used on that day. We thought Frelimo was a civilised party, but it’s not. The whites say that he who warns is a friend.”
“We’ve already been informed that all these houses [around the two schools] have an agreement with the Police of the Republic of Mozambique for the deployment of the Rapid Intervention Police. We want that to be the case, maybe we’ll get our own arms too. Please, on the 10th we don’t want to see women or men in these two schools. Please, those of you who are close to these two schools, please move out of the area as soon as possible, because on the 10th it’s going to turn into Maringue. Our patience has run out, let’s show our bad side.” .
A fire was set at the Murrupelane EPC by unknown people in the early hours of this morning (Wednesday). The CNE says it will be cleaned up in time for voting, but this does suggest the violence has started.
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