Presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane said on Thursday that he is waiting for the Mozambican president to contact him for a meeting on the post-election situation in the country, guaranteeing that it won’t take place unless Filipe Nyusi doesn’t want it to.
“I ask the President of the Republic of Mozambique that we have a virtual meeting, you in Mozambique, me where I am. Let’s talk virtually. That’s possible. And if possible, let this virtual meeting be broadcast, let it be shown to the public,” said Venâncio Mondlane today, speaking live from his official Facebook account.
“Here it is, I’m leaving this matter to you (…). I’m available, I’m looking forward to us having a virtual meeting. It’s all up to you, if we don’t meet, it’s because you’re not interested,” added the presidential candidate, who doesn’t recognise the results of the general elections of 9 October and who is out of the country for “security reasons”.
“At any moment you can locate me, you know very well how to locate me, you can’t say what you said, that you don’t know where Venâncio is,” he pointed out.
Mondlane insisted that the “virtual meeting” only depended on the Mozambican head of state: “If you are interested, also the illegal cases that have been brought against me, criminal cases, arrest warrants, compensation of millions of US dollars that I have to pay, you know very well what you have to do with that. So, if you have an interest in your people, then you know very well how to dialogue with me and how to create all the conditions for there to be dialogue, for there to be a roadmap for peace in Mozambique.”
If this meeting doesn’t take place, Venâncio Mondlane blames Nyusi for the lack of “peace” and “tranquillity” in Mozambique.
At least 12 people died and another 34 were shot in the new phase of demonstrations and stoppages to contest the election results that began on Wednesday, the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Plataforma Eleitoral Decide said today.
According to the report released by the Mozambican electoral monitoring platform, with data up to 7.30am today (two hours less in Lisbon) seven of the fatalities were recorded in Nampula province and one in Maputo, with two deaths also recorded in Cabo Delgado, one in Inhambane and another in Sofala.
Of the wounded, 20 were shot in Nampula, seven in Cabo Delgado province, three in Sofala, two in Inhambane, one in Zambézia and one in Maputo.
These cases are in addition to another 76 deaths and 240 people shot in 41 days of demonstrations to contest the election results, from 21 October to 1 December, according to the previous report by the election monitoring platform, which also estimated ‘more than 3,000 arrests’.
Presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane called for a new phase of electoral contestation lasting a week, starting on Wednesday, in ‘all the neighbourhoods’ of Mozambique, with the paralysis of car traffic.
“All the neighbourhoods are in strong activity,” said Venâncio Mondlane, calling for this new period of contestation from 4 to 11 December.
” We’re going to gather in the neighbourhoods and on the main avenues that cross our neighbourhoods – we don’t need to travel far – and put up our posters,” he said.
The announcement by Mozambique’s National Electoral Commission (CNE) on 24 October, in which it awarded victory to Daniel Chapo, supported by the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo, the party in power since 1975) in the election for President, with 70.67% of the votes, triggered popular protests, called by presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, which have degenerated into violent clashes with the police.
According to the CNE, Mondlane came second with 20.32%, but the latter does not recognise the results, which still have to be validated and proclaimed by the Constitutional Council.
Lusa
