On the evening of Tuesday 29 October, presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane called for peaceful marches across the country that should last a week (from Thursday 31 October until the following week, 7 November), with the final destination Maputo City, in an act of repudiation of the results of the general elections on 9 October, which gave victory to Daniel Chapo, the Frelimo candidate (the party in power since 1975) with 70%.
‘Everyone will be in Maputo city as a mark of victory for the Mozambican people. Those who are far away will start marching towards the country’s capital on Thursday (31),’ said the presidential candidate, watched by around 165,000 people on the Facebook platform. He added: ‘Those on the outskirts of the city can demonstrate in their neighbourhood peacefully, every day until next Thursday, 7 November.’
Venâncio Mondlane urged supporters that from the month of November, which is about to begin, the people should cancel all kinds of taxes paid to the state. ‘Nobody pays taxes and fees, the plates can circulate as they please. Four million Mozambicans are expected to march in Maputo, we’re going to fill the streets of the capital.’
‘This time armour, tear gas and bullets won’t be enough because there will be too many of us. I invite the police to be part of the cause and to stop being instrumentalised by the party. We no longer want the military serving the elite, we no longer want the National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic) at the service of a party. This is the moment for the police to free themselves,’ he said.
At the end of his broadcast, the presidential candidate supported by the Optimist Party for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos), said: ‘This is the sacrifice I wanted to ask of the Mozambican people. I would also like to ask for solidarity. All those who are on the route where there are elderly people who can’t march, let’s help. We’re also going to organise supplies to help our brothers and sisters on their way to the capital.
It should be noted that this is the third stage of the peaceful demonstrations in repudiation of the results of the 9 October general elections. Last Friday (25) was the second day of the general strike in the second stage of demonstrations called by Venâncio Mondlane, which provoked clashes between demonstrators and the police, especially in Maputo, with burning tyres, roads being cut off and tear gas being fired.
In addition to Mondlane, the Mozambican President of the National Resistance (Renamo, currently the largest opposition party), Ossufo Momade, one of the four presidential candidates, said he did not recognise the election results announced by the CNE and called for the vote to be annulled.
Presidential candidate Lutero Simango, supported by the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), also rejected the results, considering that they had been ‘forged in the secretariat’, and promised ‘political and legal action’ to restore the ‘will of the people’.
The Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), a non-governmental organisation that monitored the electoral process, estimates that ten people died, dozens were injured and around 500 were arrested in the context of the protests and clashes during the strike and demonstrations on Thursday and Friday.
Text: Nário Sixpene
