The president of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi, has criticised the intimidation of people with “different opinions” and called for the use of “legal tools” to resolve conflicts, stressing that this is a “democratic rule of law” and the best way to proceed, amid ongoing demonstrations to contest the results of the 9 October general elections.
“The intimidation of people with different opinions, the vandalisation of public and private infrastructure that serves everyone cannot be a means of expressing our feelings,” declared Nyusi, during the inauguration of a courthouse in the district of Nhamatanda, in the central province of Sofala.
Referring to a new phase of demonstrations and seven-day stoppages called by presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, who is contesting the election results announced by the National Electoral Commission (CNE), Nyusi said that resorting to violence to resolve any conflict “is not the hallmark of Mozambicans” and pointed out that differences will always exist.
“We use the legal tools to resolve them. We are a country where the rule of law prevails, a democratic state governed by the rule of law,” declared the head of state, repudiating acts of violence during demonstrations. “When the law doesn’t offer us the best way forward, let’s use dialogue to overcome our differences and never violence or extortion of passengers.”
In the same speech, Nyusi criticised the countries that supposedly support the perpetrators of the demonstrations, pointing to them as fomenters of violence.
“They don’t do this in their own countries and are even withdrawing their fellow citizens so as not to suffer violence,” he said of these countries, without naming them. “And where will we go? Who is going to remove us if this is our land?” .
The president also called for children not to take part in the demonstrations.
“We reiterate our appeal to society, particularly families, to protect our children,” he said. “We have experience of children who have grown up seeing their parents always fighting and they become violent because they think that’s just the way things are.”
Mondlane, the presidential candidate, has called for a fresh week-long phase of post-election protests, which began on Wednesday, in “all the neighbourhoods” of Mozambique, with the paralysis of automobile traffic from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The announcement by the CNE on 24 October of the results of the 9 October elections, in which it awarded victory to Daniel Chapo, supported by the governing Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) in the election for president, with 70.67% of the votes, triggered popular protests, called by Mondlane, which have degenerated into violent clashes with the police.
According to the CNE, Mondlane came second with 20.32%, but he does not recognise the results, which have yet to be validated and proclaimed by the Constitutional Council.
Lusa
