The Mozambican government has decreed a national holiday for Wednesday, the day the new president takes office, the ministry of labour announced in a statement.
The measure extends to the public and private sectors, but does not cover workers “whose activities, by their nature, cannot be interrupted”, according to the note released today.
At least 2,500 people are expected to attend the inauguration ceremony of the new President in Mozambique, and the presence of invited heads of state is yet to be confirmed, according to an official source.
The vice-president of the Interministerial Commission for Major Events, Eldevina Materula, said on Friday that invitations to international organizations had been sent that day and that they expected confirmations on Monday.
“We sent invitations to the entire Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union and some European heads of state”, including Portugal, she stated at the time.
Today, a source from the Presidency of the Portuguese Republic told Lusa that Portugal will be represented at the inauguration of Daniel Chapo as the new President of Mozambique by Portugal’s Minister of State and Foreign Affairs, Paulo Rangel.
On Friday, the Portuguese head of state, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, stated that he was awaiting a proposal from the Portuguese government regarding his possible attendance at Daniel Chapo’s inauguration, a possibility that has now been ruled out.
On January 2, the Constitutional Council (CC) of Mozambique officially set January 15 as the date for the inauguration of the new President of the Republic, who will succeed Filipe Nyusi.
The CC, the final court of appeal in electoral disputes, proclaimed Daniel Chapo, a candidate supported by the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo, in power), as the winner of the election for President of the Republic, with 65.17% of the votes, succeeding Filipe Nyusi in office, as well as the victory of Frelimo, which maintained its parliamentary majority, in the general elections of October 9.
His election is, however, contested in the streets and the announcement of the CC has increased the chaos that the country has been experiencing since October, with demonstrators in favor of Venâncio Mondlane – a candidate who, according to the Constitutional Council, obtained only 24% of the votes but who claims victory – in protests demanding the “reestablishment of the electoral truth”, with barricades, looting and clashes with the police, who have been firing shots in an attempt to demobilize the movement.
Clashes between the police and the demonstrators have already caused almost 300 deaths and more than 500 people have been shot and wounded, according to civil society organizations that are following the process.
In addition to Venâncio Mondlane, supported by the Optimist Party for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos), Chapo faced, in the elections of October 9, Ossufo Momade (who obtained 6.62%), leader and supported by the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), until now the main opposition force, and Lutero Simango (who obtained 4.02%), supported and president of the Movimento Democratic Republic of Mozambique (MDM).
Lusa