The commander-general of the Mozambican police nevertheless guarantees that officers will remain on the ground ‘to guarantee public order and security’. The opposition is contesting the election of Daniel Chapo.
The general commander of the Republic of Mozambique Police (PRM), Bernardino Rafael, estimates that more than 40% of the police force’s infrastructure has been destroyed or partially vandalised in the post-election demonstrations and protests since 21 October.
In a statement made at a parade held at the PRM’s Rapid Intervention Unit barracks in Katembe, Maputo, and confirmed to Lusa this Saturday by the commander-general himself, Bernardino Rafael said that the infrastructure network, ‘which took years to build’, was ‘severely affected’ by the post-election violence in the country.
‘We’re talking about more than 40% of the units that have been partially or totally vandalised in just over 80 days of demonstrations,’ said Bernardino Rafael, recalling that the same infrastructures served to “bring the PRM closer” to the population.
‘They directly served the people who took the initiative to destroy them,’ said the corporation’s general commander, guaranteeing that despite the level of destruction, which mainly targeted the police, the PRM remains on the ground “to guarantee public order and security”.
The Mozambican Constitutional Council (CC) has officially set 15 January as the date for the inauguration of the new Mozambican President, who will succeed Filipe Nyusi.
On 23 December, the CC, the final court of appeal in electoral disputes, proclaimed Daniel Chapo, the candidate supported by the ruling Mozambican Liberation Front (Frelimo), as the winner of the election for Mozambican President, with 65.17% of the votes, succeeding Filipe Nyusi; as well as the victory of Frelimo, which retained its parliamentary majority, in the 9 October elections .
Daniel Chapo, touted by Frelimo as a ‘young proposition’ and who will be the first head of state born after independence, will take over the Mozambican presidency in the year in which the country marks 50 years of independence, a period marked in the meantime by the greatest opposition to the electoral results since the first elections in 1994.
His election is being contested on the streets and the CC’s announcement has added to the chaos that the country has been experiencing since October, with pro-Venâncio Mondlane demonstrators – a candidate who, according to the CC, won only 24% of the votes, but who claims victory – in protests demanding the ‘restoration of electoral truth’, with barricades, looting and clashes with the police, who have been firing shots in an attempt to demobilise them.
Clashes between police and protesters have led to almost 300 deaths and more than 500 people injured by gunfire, according to civil society organisations monitoring the process.
In addition to Venâncio Mondlane, supported by the Podemos party, on his way to Ponta Vermelha (the official residence of the Mozambican President), Chapo faced Ossufo Momade (who got 6.62%), leader and supporter of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), the main opposition force, and Lutero Simango (who got 4.02%), president of the Mozambican Democratic Movement.
Mondlane, who is leading the protests from abroad, said in one of his Facebook posts that he will take office on 15 January and promised to announce in detail the next phase of the demonstrations, which he called ‘Spearhead’.
Público
