A surge in violence following the ratification of election results by Mozambique’s Constitutional Council has sparked international calls for restraint, report Lusa and Xinhua.
Last week, the Constitutional Council confirmed the ruling party candidate, Frelimo’s Daniel Chapo, the winner of the presidential election with 65.17 percent of the vote (down from nearly 70 percent in previous results) and his main opponent, Podemos-backed Venâncio Mondlane, 24 percent (up from 20 percent).
The pronouncement fuelled a new round of protests by Mondlane supporters, leading to 125 fatalities in three days – nearly doubling the total deaths in the months-long protests to 252. Hundreds more have been injured and thousands arrested by security forces who have deployed tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition in a crackdown that has drawn condemnation from global rights organisations.
The US, European Union, African Union and UN Secretary General are among the voices calling for calm. The EU said it was “extremely concerned” about the situation unfolding in Mozambique, citing “considerable loss of life” and calling for “accountability” from the perpetrators.
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The protests followed October’s presidential election, sparked by the murder of two Mondlane associates who were seeking to challenge the results and a subsequent tear gas attack by government forces when Mondlane held a press conference two days later at the site of the double murder. The harsh government crackdown since then has done little to quell the anger of Mozambicans who believe the election was stolen by Frelimo – a view shared by independent election monitors.
In November, Mondlane threatened “chaos” if the Constitutional Council did not declare him the winner. While the council did recognise some irregularities, it said that these issues did not affect the outcome of the election as Chapo maintained his significant lead. Chapo is scheduled to be inaugurated on 15 January. Mondlane, who fled the country shortly after protests began, has vowed to return to Mozambique the same day to be inaugurated himself.
Frelimo first came to power in 1975. While multi-party elections were introduced in 1994, Frelimo has continued to dominate Mozambican politics, with vote-buying, intimidation, inflated voter rolls, and a lack of transparency marring most polls over the last 30 years.
