– Demonstrations against the election results paralysed the capital, Maputo. The police responded violently, injuring dozens of people
by Aurélio Muianga
MAPUTO (MOZ TIMES) – On Monday, the police dispersed dozens of demonstrators protesting against election fraud who had gathered at various places in Maputo city. Using tear gas grenades, the riot police also fired against the main opposition presidential candidate, Venâncio Mondlane, when he was speaking to reporters in the street, near the place where his lawyer, Elvino Dias, was murdered last Friday night.
Last week Mondlane called a national strike for this Monday, 21 October, with the aim of “paralyzing the country in protest at the alleged fraud that occurred in the elections of 9 October”. The police reacted by saying that it would not tolerate any illegal demonstration.
Before he was interrupted, Venâncio Mondlane, who was speaking to the press, said that it took him about an hour to evade the death squads who had surrounded his home to prevent him from leaving.
Mondlane also advised the crowd to go home, because the objective of the strike had been achieved, and he promised to continue the demonstrations. “Today was the first stage”, he said. “There are going to be several stages in our demands. There will come a time when we paralyse the country for three, four, five days” he said – and then two tear gas grenades fell onto the journalists and interrupted the press conference.
Mondlane left the place at a run, accompanied by his supporters, and entered a vehicle parked a few hundred metres from where he was speaking to the journalists.
Images shared on social media showed people demonstrating in various parts of Maputo. In some places they set fire to flags of the ruling Frelimo Party. The police have not yet presented their own balance sheet on the demonstrations, but dozens of people were injured, according to the images shared by human rights organisations, including the Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (CDD).
In other Mozambican cities, there were also demonstrations, but the greatest impact was on the capital, Maputo. Early in the morning, the city was deserted, with almost nobody moving on the streets. “What happened was a great success. It showed that it is possible for the people to paralyse the country”, Mondlane told reporters. “We managed to fulfil our role. It thus became clear that the problem is not with the people, but with the defense and security forces”, he added.
The elections of 9 October were regarded as fraudulent by local and international observers, including the European Union’s Election Observation Mission, which referred to cases of ballot box stuffing and inflation of the number of voters (AM).
