The European Union (EU) on Monday described as “very worrying” the “reports of violent dispersal” of a demonstration in Maputo, the Mozambican capital, called by candidate Venâncio Mondlane, and said that it “continues to monitor” the situation.
“The reports of violent dispersal are quite worrying,” said a spokesperson for the EU government in a response sent to Lusa.
The same source called for “maximum restraint” from all parties involved in the electoral process and “respect for fundamental freedoms and political rights”.
“The EU continues to monitor developments in Mozambique following the shocking murders of Elvino Dias and Paulo Guambe,” the spokesman added.
Mozambican police today fired tear gas at the place where presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane was speaking to journalists, calling for calm as part of the march he had organised, forcing the politician to flee.
The candidate was speaking to journalists near the roundabout of the Mozambican Women’s Organisation at the beginning of Avenida Joaquim Chissano in the centre of Maputo.
The demonstrators who were there were trying to form a human cordon, but the police fired tear gas again.
Venâncio Mondlane was making statements to journalists and was forced to flee.
One journalist was injured in this action after another was also injured in the police charge that took place earlier in the morning.
At around 10:00 local time (09:00 in Lisbon), police dispersed the demonstration in the centre of Maputo called by presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane to protest against the murder of two supporters, charging dozens of people who had gathered there, who responded by throwing stones and launching pyrotechnic artefacts.
The peaceful marches were called by Venâncio Mondlane on Saturday at the site where two supporters were murdered, saying that the strike in the public and private sector that he had called for today, in protest at the preliminary results of the October 9 elections, was to be maintained, and that he was now taking to the streets, and blaming the Defence and Security Forces (FDS) for the double murder.
The Mozambican police confirmed to Lusa on Saturday that the car in which Elvino Dias, Venâncio Mondlane’s lawyer, and Paulo Guambe, a member of Podemos, the party that supports Mondlane, were being shot dead, was “ambushed”.
The general elections on 9 October included the seventh presidential elections, for which the current head of state, Filipe Nyusi, who has reached the two-term limit, is no longer running, at the same time as legislative elections and elections for provincial assemblies and governors.
The National Electoral Commission (CNE) has 15 days to announce the official results, a date that falls on 24 October. After that, the Constitutional Council will proclaim the results after concluding the analysis of any appeals, but no deadline has been set for this.
