Mozambique’s top police chief said on Thursday that the majority of those joining the demonstrations called by presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane are “infiltrators” who do not have voter cards and have not even voted because of they young age, denouncing the use of children in these protests.
“Young people are being used who haven’t even voted, nor do they have voter registration cards,” said the general commander of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM), Bernardino Rafael. “You can call for demonstrations, but opportunists take part, that’s the problem; you can’t separate a peaceful demonstration from a violent one and it’s the opportunists who fill the demonstrations.”
Speaking at a news conference in Maputo to take stock of his meeting with Albano Forquilha, president of the Optimist Party for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos), which backed Mondlane in the recent elections, Rafael denounced the use of minors in demonstrations that he considered violent.
“This is the most difficult problem when it comes to demonstrations,” he said. “We feel the use of children, I can’t believe that Podemos is using those children to light tyres and carry bottles containing fuel to blow up cars. The children are innocent.”
Rafael said that he had met the leader of Podemos because it is its name that is being used to call for demonstrations.
“Podemos is the one calling for violent demonstrations, without wishing to accuse,” he said. “What we need as police is for you to help us, for us to unite so that there are no violent demonstrations. We want you to help us so that if you want a demonstration that is truly peaceful, you can call us and we’ll accompany you.”
He stressed that the police are “open” to dialogue.
“We ask that Podemos as a party notify us of the route if they want this and that we be listened to when we say ‘that’s not good enough, that’s good enough,'” he added.
Rafael also said that the demonstrations present a “threat to the life of the country” – pointing out that people have been unable to work normally.
“It would be better to guarantee that people work, because the parties have to guarantee work and not paralyse work, transport, the markets,” he said. “It makes life a little difficult for Mozambicans.”
The PRM commander also asked the Podemos leader to use “legal mechanisms” to complain about any alleged irregularities in the electoral process, calling for an end to the “fear” with which Mozambicans live.
“Help us so that Mozambicans work, don’t live in fear, help us so that we don’t receive threats every day, separate ourselves from the message of violence,” concluded Rafael.
Mondlane, the presidential candidate, has called for a week-long general strike in Mozambique starting on Thursday, demonstrations at the district offices of Mozambique’s National Electoral Commission (CNE) and marches to Maputo on 7 November.
On 24 October, the CNE announced the victory of Daniel Chapo, the candidate backed by the governing Frelimo party, which has been in power since independence in 1975, in the election for head of state that was held on 9 October, with 70.67% of the vote.
Mondlane, which was supported by Podemos, a non-parliamentary party, came second with 20.32% according to the official results, but he has said he does not recognise these results, which have yet to be validated and proclaimed by the Constitutional Council.
The official results also point to Frelimo having enlarged its parliamentary majority, from 184 to 195 deputies (out of 250), and elected all 10 of the country’s provincial governors, in elections that took place at the same time as the presidential poll.
In addition to Mondlane, Ossufo Momade, the president of Renamo, the largest opposition party in the last parliament, and one of the four presidential candidates, said that he did not recognise the results and called for the vote to be annulled. A fourth presidential candidate, Lutero Simango of the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), the third party in parliament, also rejected the results – saying that they had been “forged in the office” – and promised “political and legal action” to restore the “will of the people.”
Demonstrations called by Mondlane on 21, 24 and 25 October degenerated into clashes with the police that resulted in at least 10 deaths, dozens of injuries and 500 people being detained, according to the Centre for Public Integrity, a Mozambican non-governmental organisation that monitors electoral processes.
Lusa
