Mozambique police break up opposition protest after disputed election | News

Riot police in Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, fired tear gas to disperse a crowd protesting alleged electoral fraud days after two opposition groups were shot dead.

Several hundred people, including journalists, dispersed as heavily armed police marched down the main road on Monday. Reuters news agency reported that some police officers fired their guns while dispersing the crowd.

Adriano Nuvunga, the director of the Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Mozambique, said that the bullets hit two journalists and a security guard but they were not seriously injured.

The leader of the opposition, Venancio Mondlane, who ran for president in the October 9 election, called for a general strike to challenge the early results that pointed to the ruling Frelimo party.

Shops in Maputo were closed, and helicopters hovered over the city of about a million people.

“Venancio”, which is the name by which he is famous, was one of those who dispersed and later posted a video on Facebook showing him running away from a tearful sister, surrounded by his supporters. He told reporters that the police tried to stop him from attending the protest.

“This morning I could not leave my house. I had people at my door, including the police. It took me an hour to get out,” said the 50-year-old woman.

The situation escalated over the weekend after Mondlane’s colleagues were shot dead in Maputo.

Lawyer Elvino Dias and Paulo Guambe, a candidate for the small Podemos party supporting Mondlane, were in a car when they were surrounded by other cars and were shot dead on Saturday, eyewitnesses said.

The leader of Podemos, Albino Forquilha, confirmed the killing of these men to the AFP news agency, while the police said that an investigation had been launched but did not confirm the identity of the two men.

A ‘disabled’ country

The European Union, African Union, and the United Nations condemned the incident and called on the authorities to identify the perpetrators.

In a statement, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on “all Mozambicans, including political leaders and their supporters, to calm down, exercise restraint and reject all forms of violence.”

The head of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, said he was “deeply concerned” by the “reported cases of post-election violence, especially the recent killings”.

Last year, many people died in clashes after Frelimo, which has been in power since independence 49 years ago, won municipal elections.

The official results of the presidential and parliamentary elections are still pending.

Mozambique’s electoral commission has declined to comment on allegations of fraud.

US-based observers said the poll did not meet international standards for democratic elections, noting reports of vote-buying, intimidation, inflated voter turnout and other problems.

Early signs of declining voter turnout in the coastal nation of about 33 million people could make the vote legal.

President Filipe Nyusi, 65, is stepping down after two terms, but his party’s candidate, Daniel Chapo, 47, is expected to win.

Other candidates for the presidential election include Ossufo Momade, 63, of the opposition party Renamo, and Lutero Simango, 64, of the Mozambique Democratic Movement.

Mondlane, who has claimed victory, said his call for a protest on Monday was a “great success”.

“The country was paralyzed … 95 percent of private and public services across the country were paralyzed,” he wrote on Facebook. He said the strike was followed in the cities of Chimoio, Nampula, Beira, and Maputo, among others.