Presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane said on Thursday that 12 young people had been detained in Wednesday’s clashes in Nampula between the Mozambican police and his supporters.
“We have 12 young people deprived of their liberty, for no good reason,” Venâncio Mondlane told the media at Beira Airport in Sofala, minutes after his arrival in that province in central Mozambique.
On Wednesday morning, Mozambican police dispersed a gathering of hundreds of supporters of Venâncio Mondlane, who was in the city of Nampula, using tear gas.
At a press conference held on the same day, the director of public order and security for the Republic of Mozambique Police (PRM) in Nampula, Gilberto Inguane, spoke of the detention of at least four people, considering that the confusion began when supporters of Podemos, the party backing Mondlane’s candidacy, tried to use a route opposite to the one indicated by the authorities, which passed by the military academy.
Mondlane denies that his group ignored the authorities’ instructions and accuses the police of having started shooting at his supporters, but admits that there was “a lot of nervousness” among the young people accompanying him.
“There was indeed a lot of nervousness on the part of the young people. I agree (…) How is it possible for a police force that has been co-ordinating harmoniously with us to suddenly start shooting at people? The young people started picking up stones because they really didn’t understand,” said Mondlane, who accuses the authorities of having used real bullets during the clashes, which caused injuries.
The Mozambican politician also said that he had already contacted the attorney general, Beatriz Buchili, asking for her attention to the “detention without legal grounds” of the 12 young people.
“There was a lot of nervousness and, as if that wasn’t enough, they brought in other riot police units (…), they came with a water tank, they came with tear gas,” he said.
The district and provincial election commissions have already concluded the tabulation of the vote in the general elections on 9 October, which according to public announcements give an advantage to the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo, the ruling party) and the presidential candidate that the party supports, Daniel Chapo, with more than 60% of the vote, although Venâncio Mondlane disputes these results, citing the data from the original minutes and notices of the vote, which he is collecting throughout the country.
Mondlane, who has already called Mozambicans to a general strike on Monday in the face of the alleged fraud, said today in Beira that after the results of the general elections are announced he will appeal to the Constitutional Council.
In Beira, the presidential candidate, supported by the extra-parliamentary Podemos party, again complained of intimidation, after on Tuesday the attorney general warned him to refrain from “social unrest and incitement to violence”, pointing out that the politician had committed the crime of disobedience by declaring himself the winner of the general elections.
“The warning is the result of the repeated wave of social unrest, public disobedience, disrespect for the organs of state and incitement and disinformation perpetrated by the candidate for country’s president, Mr Venâncio António Bila Mondlane, at rallies, on social media and other digital platforms,” the attorney general said in a statement.
The CNE has 15 days after the polls close to announce the official results of the elections, a date that falls on 24 October, after which the Constitutional Council will proclaim the results, once it has also concluded its analysis of any appeals, but with no deadline set for this.
The general elections included the seventh presidential elections – for which the current head of state, Filipe Nyusi, who has reached the two-term limit, no longer ran – at the same time as the seventh legislative elections and the fourth elections for provincial assemblies and governors.
