PREVIEW
Positions are hardening after two opposition lawyers are assassinated and the ruling party dismisses complaints about the elections
Opposition presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane is calling for a two-day national strike to bring the economy to a standstill as protests escalate in the wake of the disputed national elections on 9 October (AC Vol 65 No 21, Mondlane’s vote surge overturns the status quo). This follows a day of clashes on 21 October with police firing tear gas at demonstrators in cities across the country, and reports that at least two people had been killed.
Many Mozambicans are outraged at the double murder of two opposition lawyers, Elvino Dias and Paulo Guambe, in the early hours of 19 October. Dias working for Mondlane, and Guambe for Partido Otimista pelo Desinvolvimento de Moçambique (Podemos), Mondlane’s adopted party, were due to present their claims of election rigging this week to the Constitutional Council. Their funerals, scheduled on 23 October, could be another flashpoint for protests on the same day the general strike is due to start.
Last year, Dias, a tenacious young lawyer shot to fame after he demonstrated convincingly that Mondlane had won the mayoral elections against the ruling Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Frelimo) in Maputo city (AC Vol 64 No 24, Court redistributes poll wins & Vol 64 No 21, Stolen election claims trigger protests). And then on 19 October, he and Guambe faced a barrage of gunfire in what witnesses described as a planned assassination.
Their car was blocked as they drove along Avenue Joaquim Chissano, on the border of Malhangalane, where Mondlane lives, and Coop, near the centre of capital Maputo. Two gunmen shot at both sides of the car. A third passenger, a young woman, was taken away by ambulance. Witnesses report that the assassins fired dozens of bullets into the vehicle.
Police were slow to arrive, then refused to allow Guambe, who was still alive after the attack, to be taken to hospital in a waiting ambulance. Witnesses say police prevented them filming Dias and Guambe’s car and destroyed bystanders’ mobile phones to prevent any footage being released.
After the murder of Dias and Guambe, Mondlane called on his supporters to take to the streets in protest. Army commanders sent vehicles on patrol across Maputo on the evening of 20 October to deter protestors.
It didn’t work. On the following morning, demonstrators filed through the streets across the country and workers heeded the strike call. Footage shows police firing tear gas at journalists filming in the Malhangalane area of Maputo. In nearby Maxaquene, youth protestors stormed an armoured vehicle, tipping it over, chanting defiantly. The soldiers had fled after running out of tear gas, we understand. Some ruling party cadres are worried about the high level of support for the opposition among the military and the police.
In other big cities, including Nampula and Beira, police also fired tear gas, wounding some journalists. Mondlane and protesters say the police fired live rounds as well as rubber bullets, and local activist group the Mozambican Network of Human Rights Defenders (RMDDH) reports police killed a civilian in Tete province, and wounded many others. Video footage shows another young man apparently being shot in the head in Maputo. Local media sources say he later died.
Opposition activists say the killing of Dias and Guambe will hamper their appeal; their efforts were depending heavily on Dias’s expertise. They still plan to present their evidence but now the risk is higher that their claims may be delayed and rejected on technicalities.
Frelimo has been declared the winner of the 9 October elections in preliminary results released by the Comissão Nacional de Eleições (CNE). But claims of rigging by all the opposition parties are casting doubt over the result (AC Vol 65 No 1, Frelimo set to steal polls again ).
Several international organisations swiftly labelled the killings as political assassinations; the EU condemning them within hours on Saturday morning as an ‘outrageous crime’. It said ‘there is no place for political killings’ it ‘looks forward to reactions by the Mozambican government.’ It added that ‘strong protection measures of all candidates in this post-electoral period are crucial.’
The opposition blames Frelimo as do some diplomats and some sources in the ruling party, in private. In an unprecedented move, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he ‘vehemently condemned the murders.’
In a highly emotive press conference a few hours after the killings, Mondlane blamed Frelimo’s old guard, naming former Presidents Armando Guebuza and Joaquim Chissano, as well as Graça Machel, the wife of first president Samora Machel. He said all had ‘blood on their hands’ as they collectively refused to cede power.
In an official statement on 19 October, Frelimo denies any involvement and claims to be shocked by the murders, which it describes as a ‘macabre act.’ Few believe that. The police crackdown on opposition on 21 October has convinced more Mozambicans that Frelimo is willing to use violence to cling on to power.
In preliminary results in the election on 9 October, Frelimo was said by the CNE to have won by a landslide. Yet no-one is celebrating, say insiders. Few are willing to talk about the election; others admit the inflation of the vote numbers has reached ‘ridiculous’ proportions. The CNE has refused to comply with EU demands that they release results from individual polling stations, which may have exposed massive fraud and inconsistencies in the numbers.
Opposition and civic activists say the results are based on widespread rigging, sometimes rewriting the final tally sheets. Some Frelimo sources concede that the party ‘probably lost’ to Mondlane and Podemos, amid widespread discontent with Frelimo.
The preliminary results show Frelimo with 192 seats in Parliament, Podemos with 32, the guerrilla turned opposition party Resistência Nacional Moçambicana (Renamo) with 21 and the Movimento Democrático de Moçambique (MDM) with three. This makes Podemos the biggest opposition party. But Frelimo may try to manipulate the results further to give more seats to Renamo, seen as more biddable than Podemos.
In the recent past, Renamo has been a compliant counterpart, accepting defeat in exchange for funding as the main opposition party. Mondlane and PODEMOS have so far refused to do deals with Frelimo.
Outgoing President Filipe Nyusi has remained silent, as civil society calls on him to address the nation. His wife, Isaura, has condemned the killings in her own statement, posted on Facebook.
Frelimo’s main statement comes from presidential candidate Daniel Chapo, also a lawyer, who has condemned the murders and calls for an ‘impartial, independent and rigorous’ investigation by the authorities. Few believe this will happen. For years, Mozambique’s judges have been politically compromised (AC Vol 60 No 21, Frelimo takes no chances). Civil society groups say that not a single political killing has been solved.
Chapo’s words about justice, human dignity and the importance of the rule of law in a democratic state were dismissed by civic activists as rhetoric. They argued that he was forced into commenting on the killings after international organisations had released critical statements. After he promised to ‘defend truth and justice,’ his opponents said that he could start by conceding the election to Mondlane.
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